LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 



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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



SERMONS 



B^- THE 

REV. JOSEPH McCARRELL, D.D. 




NEW YORK 
DODD, MEAD & COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 



"Eton* 



Copyright, 1888, 

BY 

DODD, MEAD & COMPANY. 



All rights reserved. 



PREFACE. 



THIS brief and imperfect sketch is a compilation, 
from such published records as could be ob- 
tained, with the kind assistance of a friend in 
preparing the papers for the press. 

Many of these sermons were preached and 
published " by request " a number of years ago, 
and, as a friend of my late father writes, "At 
that time they had a wide circulation, with high- 
est appreciation, from those who could best judge of 
their value." 

Frequent requests have recently been made for 
copies of some of these sermons, but most of them 
had been published so early in his ministry that 
they had passed out of print and could not be ob- 
tained. It has been a pleasant task to try to place 
in a more permanent form so much at least of the 
works of my father. 

Only a small part of his writings are given in 
this volume. He had prepared for the press, 
Expositions of the Epistles to the Hebrews and 
the Ephesians, and of The Revelation, and some of 
the Prophets. Looking over the mass of neatly 
prepared manuscript, it has been a matter of amaze- 
ment how all this work could have been accom- 
plished by one who was not only Pastor of a large 



IV 



PREFACE, 



congregation, but also Professor of Greek and 
Hebrew in a theological seminary, and at this time 
the only one to teach the students anything to fit 
them for the office of the ministry. How well 
this was done, the band of noble men who are 
scattered all over this land and also in foreign lands 
can testify. All was work for "the Master" he 
so loved to serve, and not for worldly gain, as his 
salary from the seminary was merely nominal, a 
pittance of $300 a year. 

It is easy to understand why the family rarely 
saw my father, except in the evenings, which he 
always cheerfully devoted to them. Or why, at 
sixty-eight years of age, he should be taken away, 
with no disease, as his physician said. 

The truth is correctly given in a sentence from 
a sketch which appeared in 1876, in a work called 
"Men of Mark of Cumberland Valley, Penn.," 
by Rev. Alfred Nevin, D.D. He says, "Dr. 
McCarrell's last years were made sad by various 
causes, which could not operate upon such a nature 
as his without reaching and affecting the fountain 
of physical life. * 

"The changes in the denomination* to which he 
was so warmly attached, causing separation, from 

* The Associate Reformed Church, or, as it is sometimes 
called, the Scotch Presbyterian, was for many years a strong 
body of Calvinists in New York and Pennsylvania. (See life 
of Dr. John M. Mason.) And there is yet in the South, I am 
told, a large and influential body of Associate Reformed 
Presbyterians. 



PRE FA CE. 



V 



brethren with whom he had so long been closely 
connected in ecclesiastical fellowship, and the death 
of his eldest daughter all made a deep and visible 
impression upon him. That 'his strength was 
weakened in the way ' was obvious to all. With 
only a few days illness he 4 fell on sleep/ March, 
1864, and is buried in the 'Old Graveyard' in the 
center of the city of Newburgh, N. Y., surrounded by 
his elders, who also are ' waiting for the adoption.' 

" Dr. McCarrell was married to a Miss Jane B. 
Leiper, of Shippensburgh, Perm., a lady of superior 
excellence as a minister's wife. His family con- 
sisted of eight children, four of whom are living, 
and also one grandson." 

On a hill which commands a fine view of the 
city of Newburgh and the Hudson stands the 
"Theological Seminary," a large stone building, 
It is now used as a boarding-school for boys ; the 
school is successfully conducted, and is still under 
Presbyterian influence. 

The "old church" is the same unpretending 
edifice, with alterations in the interior. The truth 
is still taught by an able minister of the " Word," 
and the old sweet bell yet softly tolls the hour of 
service, — but many of that once large congrega- 
tion no longer gather there to worship: many are 
scattered far and wide, and very many are singing 
the "new song" of the redeemed in the "upper 
Sanctuary." R. McC. 

May, 1888. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



44 r pHE Rev. Joseph McCarrell, D.D., was a native 
1 of Shippensburgh, Pa., and was born on the 
9th of July, 1795. His parents were warmly at- 
tached members of the " Associate Reformed Pres- 
byterian Church " of that place, and the region was 
one whose history was connected with the earliest 
annals of the denomination, in the communion of 
which Dr. McCarxell lived and died, and for which 
he had an unchangeable affection. 

His mind was early turned towards the ministry 
of the gospel ; and he entered upon studies prepar- 
atory thereto, availing himself of such helps as were 
within his reach, though in the main he had to de- 
pend upon his own efforts, and was in fact (to a 
great extent) a self-made man. 

While preparing for, college in 18 14, the country 
was electrified by the news of the capture of Wash- 
ington, the burning of the Capitol and other public 
buildings, and the threatened attack on Baltimore. 
The militia of the adjacent counties of Pennsyl- 
vania marched as quickly as possible to the scene 



* This sketch was published in the Newburgh Journal at the time 
of Dr. McCarrell's death, April, 1864. 



2 



INTRODUCTORY. 



of danger. Among them was Joseph McCarrell. 
For three days and nights the young student- 
soldier was in the trenches awaiting the onset of 
the enemy. I have often heard him describe the 
magnificent scene which he witnessed — the bom- 
bardment of Fort McHenry, and the anxiety with 
which they watched at the dawn of each day to see 
whether our flag was still in place. (As is well 
known, it was this scene which inspired Mr. Francis 
M. Key to write that lyric which the American 
people will never willingly let die, — " The Star 
Spangled Banner.") 

Soon after his return home, he entered Wash- 
ington and Jefferson College, Washington, Pa., and 
graduated with high honors in the class of 1815. In 
1818, he entered the Theological Seminary of the 
Associate Reformed Church, then in New York, un- 
der the care of the distinguished Dr. John M. 
Mason. He brought to the Seminary an amount of 
attainment in certain branches of learning which 
very few possess when leaving it, for he had made 
himself a thorough Hebrew scholar, and had read 
the whole of the Old Testament in that language. 

Having finished the prescribed course of study, he 
was licensed by the Presbytery of Big Spring, Pa., 
on the 21st of June, 1821. For several months he 
supplied the Associate Reformed Presbyterian 
Church, in Murray Street, New York (Vacant by the 
resignation of Dr. Mason), with so much acceptance, 
that not a few of its members wished to call him as 



INTRODUCTORY. 



3 



their pastor. But he was destined to spend his life 
in another sphere. Declining a call to a church in 
Hagerstown, Maryland, at the same time, he was 
soon after invited to assume the pastoral care of 
the Associate Reformed Church, Newburgh, N. Y. 
This invitation he accepted, and was ordained to 
the gospel ministry and installed pastor, March 14, 
1823. His pastorate of this church covered a 
period of 41 years, and was nearly as long as the 
united pastorates of his four predecessors. 

The society, though one of the oldest in New- 
burgh, was by no means large when he became its 
pastor, but from that time it steadily advanced in 
numbers, and has become the mother of two other 
congregations. 

In 1829, the Seminary, which had been suspended 
in New York city for some years, was revived, es- 
tablished at Newburgh, and Dr. McCarrell was 
chosen Professor of Theology by the Associate 
Reformed Synod of New York. He held the office 
until a few years before his death, and during that 
period he had some seventy young men under his 
care, all of whom ever felt for him the warmest affec- 
tion because of his rare goodness in every sense of 
that word, and the highest respect for his intellectual 
abilities. 

As a preacher, he had not a particle of sensation- 
alism about him. In the pulpit he was wholly 
free from all mannerism, and usually calm, yet 
occasionally he would rise to a high strain of pa- 



4 



INTRODUCTORY. 



thetic eloquence, showing what a latent power 
there was in the man. He had a profound rever- 
ence for sacred things. The creed he professed was 
the creed he held with his whole heart, and from 
which he never varied. And he had the courage of 
his convictions, as he showed by preaching his ser- 
mons on " Bible Temperance" (which subjected him 
to not a little adverse criticism). 

For the Bible he ever felt and manifested the 
deepest reverence. It was to him emphatically the 
very voice of the living God, the supreme standard 
of faith and manners. He recognized no other au- 
thority that could be compared with this, deeming 
it one to which enlightened reason and true science 
would implicitly bow. For many years he preached 
its precious truths with an ever-growing delight in 
them, and in the work of making them known to 
others. 

Dr. McCarrell died at his home in Newburgh, 
March 28, 1864. He had been able to preach in 
his own pulpit, until within three weeks of his de- 
cease. He was mercifully spared the endurance of 
acute physical pain during his last illness. His men- 
tal strength was unabated, and at last he peacefully 
fell asleep in the Lord, in the 68th year of his age. 

The funeral took place, on Friday, April 1st. 
The services at the house were conducted by the 
Rev. Dr. Brown, of St. George's Episcopal Church, 
(the neighbor and friend of the deceased for many 
years), and the Rev. Dr. Krebs, of New York. The 



INTRODUCTORY. 



5 



services in the church were conducted by the Rev. 
Joseph Kimball of Fishkill, Rev. Alexander Jace 
of Newburgh, Rev. H. Mandeville of the Reformed 
Dutch Church of Newburgh, Rev. Dr. Snodgrass (a 
classmate in college), and Rev. Dr. Forsyth of 
Newburgh. 

It ought also to be mentioned as a fact worthy 
of note that, among those who followed the body 
of Dr. McCarrell to the grave, was Father Reilly, 
the Roman Catholic priest, a young man of rare 
intelligence. He asked for himself the privilege 
of walking in procession with the other clergy of 
the town. He wished to show this mark of respect 
for one with whom in life he had held pleasant 
intercourse, and with whom he had often engaged 
in argument concerning the great problems of life. 



The following tribute to the memory of the late 
Dr. McCarrell was written by Rev. Alexander B. 
Jace, who spent one year in the Theological Semi- 
nary at Newburgh (having received his previous 
education in Scotland) : 

Another great and good man, abiit ad filures, 
has gone over to the majority and joined the na- 
tions of the dead. Now that the funeral is over, 
perhaps you will suffer me to bring one stone and 
lay it by his grave, leaving other hands to polish it 
and put it in its rightful place. 



6 



INTRODUCTORY. 



When I first knew the doctor it was when the 
fruit of all that he had learned, and fashioned, and 
felt, was ripening in the light of immortality, and 
God's own hand was opening to receive it. At that 
time I was waiting on his instructions at the Sem- 
nary, and I speak not only for myself, but for my 
fellow-students, when I thankfully acknowledge how 
much our spiritual life was deepened by our inter- 
course with him. For the present, in order to con- 
dense my remarks, I shall speak of him as a 
preacher, a professor, and a Christian. 

For several years previous to my acquaintance 
with him, his style of preaching had somewhat 
altered. He had left the more recondite themes to 
which his researches, as a professor, had conducted 
him, and confined himself more particularly to the 
exposition of those grand spiritual truths which 
were his strength and joy, and just in proportion as 
he drew less from the material of his studies, and 
more from the spirit of faith by which he was sus- 
tained, he spoke with greater unction and directness. 
As I recall the hallowed impression of these Sab- 
bath services (the memory of which yet lingers with 
me), I would briefly state some of the causes of that 
solemn effect which his discourses would produce. 

First of all, there was a wonderful individuality 
about his style of preaching, — so much so, that when 
his sermons were given to the world, you could 
always tell the author without looking at the title- 
page. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



7 



This was not in consequence of any oft-used 
illustrations, any sudden sweep of sentences, any of 
that epigrammatic verbiage, or misplacement of 
words, or tricks or feats of language, for which 
some preachers are distinguished.- What chiefly 
struck the hearer was his extraordinary command of 
Scripture, and the affluence of similitude which he 
gathered from this source. Sentence after sentence 
closely interlaced with scriptural phraseology would 
fall from his lips, clear as crystal, revealing his 
thoughts with distinctness, and riveting the atten- 
tion of his hearers by their purity and energy. You 
can readily imagine that this was peculiarly at- 
tractive to those whose hearts were imbued with 
religious feeling, and whose study of the Bible had 
begun in the simplicity of childhood, when it was 
felt to be indeed divine. And when it was con- 
sidered that the work was done so easily, so freely, 
and so naturally, it left a profound impression of 
his power. 

In the pulpit the doctor's manner was singularly 
quiet. One finger of his right hand occasionally 
extended, and moving with the rise and fall of suc- 
cessive sentences, was almost the only action in 
which he indulged. Neither did his voice rise and 
swell in deep passionate excitement. Not that his 
preaching was void of feeling, but his feeling sel- 
dom, if ever, grew to the vehemence of passion. 
Still, although his manner was so quiet, his power 
over his audience was great. The tones of his 



8 



INTRODUCTORY. 



voice, the changing expressions of his face, the bal- 
lad-like simplicity of his language, all showed the 
intense reality of his feelings, and hence, very readily 
communicated them to others. If he wanted the 
stern and stormy temper of the " deinotes" which is 
supposed to be essential to the orator, there was a 
spell in the quietness of his manner which affected 
the soul like the dews of the morning, or the tem- 
pered light of day. 

Those who have listened to his remarks in the 
" Union Prayer Meetings " will remember the pure 
and seraphic expression of his countenance when it 
was lit with the ecstacy of holy feeling, and which 
awed by its unearthly beauty, as well as the marked 
solemnity of his manner when he repeated such 
words as these, " Beloved, now are we the sons of 
God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, 
but we know that when He shall appear, we shall 
be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." 

In the discharge of his duties as a professor, the 
doctor was chiefly remarkable for completeness and 
conscientious thoroughness in all he undertook. 
However much the members of the class might fail, 
the doctor could always be depended on, and when 
the clock struck the hour for recitation, they could 
look for him with a confidence which I never re- 
member to have seen disappointed. In all that he 
did he seemed to be impressed with the profoundest 
sense of his responsibility, a feeling which grew 
deeper and deeper as he advanced in life. Of no 



INTRODUCTORY. 



9 



man could it ever be more truly said, that whatever 
his hand found to do he did it with his might, did it 
heartily, as unto the Lord. In his intercourse with 
the students there was always an utter want of dis- 
play, a noble incapacity of guile, compelling him to 
seem what he was. Honesty and integrity were the 
habits of his soul, and one might say of his body 
too. To see and hear him in the class-room, to see 
his look, and hear his voice, expounding a point of 
faith, made you feel that he was one that could not 
but show what was in him, and speak out what was 
on his mind. 

There might be too much of this at times for 
strangers. To them he might frequently appear 
firm to obstinacy, but no one could doubt his truth- 
fulness ; or distrust, I say not his word, but his very 
aspect and gesture, and the glance of his eye. The 
doctor was pre-eminently true, unmistakably, un- 
variably, fearlessly true, and he could well afford to 
be so, for his nature was as gentle as it was gen- 
uine. 

It would be a pleasing task in this connection to 
present a " catena " of his noble sentiments, a har- 
vest of his genial touches, a list of his rememberable 
sayings, and no less pleasing to descant on his won- 
derful kindness and generosity to the students. 
How willing he was to give to them the stores of 
information, stores not shut up in note-books, but 
lodged in his brain ! Let it suffice that no one who 
knew him as a professor could choose but love him, 



10 



INTRODUCTORY. 



while his reciprocity of the affection that they bore 
him was like the sunshine and the showers of 
Heaven. Take him all in all, I never knew a man 
so thoroughly delightful. Others may have more 
of this, or more of that, but there was a symmetry, 
a compactness, a sweetness, a true delightfulness 
about him, I remember in no one else. 

His private character I can hardly venture to por- 
tray. If I were to do so, I might be charged with 
presenting an ideal, not a real character. 

So, at any rate, I would have judged the Doctor's 
character had I merely met with it in a description, 
and not enjoyed the felicity of knowing it. In all 
his familiar intercourse he was as simple as a child, 
and when engaged in conversation there was a naive 
spontaneity and richness in his turns of thought 
which was exceedingly refreshing. In his speech 
there was no satire, because in his nature there was 
no bitterness. Humor, quaint, fantastic, happy 
humor, like Paul Richter's, only more elegant, over- 
flowed his table-talk and imparted to it the richest 
flavor. Yet over all his speech and manner there 
breathed a sacred tenderness, which flowed not from 
any earthly source, but was the fragrance of a 
heavenly spirit. His child-like faith imparted a 
secret charm to his daily life. His nature, so trust- 
ful, so affectionate, so given to meditation, seemed 
to be ground well prepared for the seed of God, and 
surely in it that seed so grew and fructified as is 
rarely seen on earth. He always appeared to me 



INTRODUCTORY. 



1 1 



like the "beloved disciple," whose head lay confid- 
ingly on the breast of Jesus, and to whom were re- 
vealed the most glorious visions of the church's 
future. The spiritual insight, the purity of con- 
science, the ecstatic joy, the womanly gentleness of 
feeling which are especially attributed to that 
apostle, were all of them characteristic of this godly 
man. 

As he neared the close of life, the delights of re- 
ligious meditation became more and more sweet. 
Day by day, he loved to bring the Saviour near him, 
and to live ever as John (the beloved disciple) would 
have done with the assurance that his dearest Friend 
and Brother was never absent from him. The one 
religious theme which engrossed his meditation, 
probably, more than any other, was the Brotherhood 
of Immanuel. To know Him, as possessing the 
power and wisdom of God, yet as being our elder 
Brother, was the joy of his life. To grow into His 
likeness was his single desire. To be with Him, as 
now he is in his Fathers home, was his abiding 
hope. 

During the last few years the Doctor lost a daugh- 
ter, (Mrs. Leiper) for whom his attachment was un- 
speakable. From that time dated an entire altera- 
tion in his manner. Not that his abiding religious 
views and convictions were ever altered. But his 
social faculty never recovered that great shock. It 
was blighted, and it seemed as if he was always de- 
siring to be alone. A stranger who saw him for a 



12 



INTRODUCTORY. 



time full of cordial talk, pleasing and being pleased, 
was apt to think how delightful he must always be, 
and so he was; but then such hours of talk were 
like angels' visits, few and far between. In him, as 
Mr. Carlyle would say, the "silences" were most 
predominant, and I think that every one must have 
been struck with this habitual stillness. The loss 
which he sustained had manifestly overwhelmed 
him. The deep and lasting love he bore his daugh- 
ter, the grave could not destroy. In the recesses of 
his heart he carried it about perpetually, walking in 
the midst of men like one weighed down with sor- 
row. Every day and hour you could see his might 
was sinking, and when you looked into his face, you 
felt as David did of old, when the Lord's anointed 
fell. 

The Doctor is now dead, his body safe past pain, 
his soul safe past sorrow. In a glory he shines past 
conceiving, in a fruition past prayer. 

But in this world we shall see his face no more, 
and how distressing to think of that! His brethren 
will miss him in the "vineyard of the Lord." I 
leave it for others to record of him, in terms suitable 
to his worth, a sense of the value they set upon him. 
I leave it for them, that generations hereafter may 
know how much we value him, who carved his name 
upon the pillars of his church, and who, as a citizen, 
did so much to distinguish the town in which he 
lived. His death reminds us that the ministry of 
others is nearly run, that the voyage is drawing to 



4 



INTRODUCTORY. 



13 



a close, that we may see the lights and hear the 
voices that are sounding on the other shore ; and 
now the gray hairs, the long shadows, the fast thin- 
ning band of compatriots, and many other things, 
are voices proclaiming, " Work while it is called to- 
day, the night cometh, when no man can work." 
The grave of this great man is but a little hill, yet 
from that little hill how small do the great affairs of 
life appear, how great the small. 



SERMONS ON BAPTISM. 



17 



ft 



I. 



" For John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized 
with the Holy Ghost not many days hence." — Acts, i., 5. 

THE truth of God is the grand means of the re- 
generation and sanctiflcation of men. Thus 
prays the Saviour — " sanctify them through thy 
truth ; thy word is truth." 

This is brought to bear in various ways upon the 
heart and life. By the works of creation there is 
made a display of the divine power and Godhead. 
" The heavens declare the glory of God, and the 
firmament showeth his handiwork. All thy works 
praise thee." In the book of God is the most full 
revelation of all that it is necessary for us to know 
so that we may glorify God and enjoy him forever. 
The truth of the Word is read and heard that it may 
be believed and obeyed. It is also confirmed by the 
oath of God, " for God ? willing to show unto the 
the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, 
confirmed it by his oath." 

Still further is the truth illustrated and confirmed 
by signs in which our senses are made handmaids to 
faith. The great and distinguishing truths of the 
everlasting covenant are bodied forth in striking 
analogies addressed to our senses. These are called 

19 



20 



SERMONS. 



sacraments, sensible signs whereby Christ and the 
benefits of the New Covenant are represented, sealed, 
and applied to believers. 

To this class of ordinances belonged, under the 
former dispensation of the covenant of grace, the 
tree of life, animal sacrifices, the rainbow, the circum- 
cision, and the passover. Under the new dispen- 
sation of the same covenant, we have Baptism and 
the Lord's Supper. 

Baptism is a sign and seal of membership in the 
visible Church under the new dispensation. It is 
the personal badge of visible Christianity. " Bap- 
tism is a holy ordinance instituted by Christ, wherein 
the washing with water in the name of the Father, 
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, doth signify 
and seal our engrafting into Christ, and partaking of 
the benefits of the covenant of grace, and our en- 
gagement to be the Lord's." 

Let us consider — first, its form ; secondly, its 
signification ; thirdly, its subjects ; and fourthly, its 
uses. 

Firstly. Under the form may be comprehended 
the author, the administrator, the element, the 
actions, and the formula. 

The author of this institution is the Lord Jesus 
Christ. It is recorded in the commission given to 
the first ministers of the gospel, " Go ye into all the 
world, and preach the gospel to every creature." — 
Mark xvi. 15. " Make disciples of all nations, bap- 
tizing them in the name of the Father, and of the 



BAPTISM. 



21 



Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to ob- 
serve all things whatsoever I have commanded you ; 
and lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the 
world." — Matt, xxviii., 19, 20. 

The administrator of Baptism is an ordained min- 
ister of the gospel, not a woman or any other private 
person. This is clear from the words of the com- 
mission itself. 

The element to be used is water. " Can any man 
forbid water that these should not be baptized, which 
have received the Holy Ghost as well as we." — Acts 
x., 47. " I indeed baptize you with water." — Matt, 
iii., 1 1. The Quakers, or Friends, by rejecting water 
reject the whole ordinance. Romanists by adding 
oil and spittle corrupt it. 

The actions are the administration and reception 
of the element of water by pouring or sprinkling by 
the minister officiating, and its reception by the per- 
son baptized. 

The question relating to the form of baptism is 
between us and our Baptist friends. They do not 
own us as brethren, because they do not think we 
are baptized, and therefore we are not in the visible 
Church of God at all. The question is whether the 
element of water is applied to the subject by pouring 
or sprinkling, or the subject put into or under it. 
We assert the former, they the latter. 

For our mode we claim the authority of Christ and 
his apostles, and the usages of the languages of in- 
spiration corroborated by the Septuagint, (the Greek 



22 



SERMONS. 



translation of the Old Testament), by writers in the 
Apocrypha, by other writers, Christian and pagan, 
and by the history of the foundation of the Christian 
Church. 

The language of the text, Acts i., 5, is itself suffi- 
cient to settle this question with all who are willing 
to be taught by the highest authority in the universe, 
the Lord Jesus Christ. " For John truly baptized 
with water ; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy 
Ghost not many days hence." How were they 
baptized with the Holy Ghost ? By the Holy Ghost 
" coming upon them." &7t£\$orToS rov ayiov IIvsv- 
jxaroS iq? vpiaS, i. 8. " This is that which was 
spoken by the prophet Joel [ii., 28, 32] ; and it shall 
come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour 
out of my spirit upon all flesh." £kj£g3 ano rov nvev- 
jAottoZ jaov ini TtaGav aapna. — Acts ii., 17; and 
again, " On my servants and my handmaids will I 
pour out of my spirit," ii. 18. 

4 Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, 
and having received of the Father the promise of the 
Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this which ye now 
see and hear — e%ex £e tovto$ ii., 33. Jesus then 
baptized with the Holy Ghost by pouring out, by 
shedding upon his servants the gifts and graces of 
the Holy Ghost. Baptism is then rightly performed 
by pouring. 

The same language is employed by Luke in the 
10th chapter, 45th verse of the Acts of the Apostles: 
" Upon the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of 



BAPTISM. 



23 



the Holy Ghost" ; ini ra e^rtj fj dajpea tov ayiov 

John the Baptist uses the same language in com- 
paring his baptism with that of his divine Master : 

" I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance : 
but he that cometh after me is mighter than I, whose 
shoes I am not worthy to bear : he shall baptize you 
with the Holy Ghost. — Matt, iii., 11 : and again 
Mark i., 8, and Luke iii., 16. 

It was predicted respecting the Messiah, " So 
shall he sprinkle many nations ; " P.^l D " ia n Jl P. 
Isaiah Hi., 15. He sprinkles by the application of 
his blood for the pardon of sin. His blood is there- 
fore called " the blood of sprinkling." " Ye are come 
to the blood of sprinkling," aifxari pavritfjuov, 
which speaketh better things than that of Abel ; 
Heb. xii., 24. 

He sprinkles with his spirit. " Then I will sprinkle 
clean water upon you ; Dnintp D^p ttby VjiTiri and ye 
shall be clean ; from all your filthiness, and from all 
your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also 
will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within 
you ; and I will take away the stony heart out of 
your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. 
And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you 
to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judg- 
ments, and do them." — Ezekiel xxxvi., 25, 27. 

Paul ascribes this to Jesus : " Not by works of 
righteousness which we have done, but according to 
his mercy he saved us, with the washing of regen- 



24 



SERMONS. * 



eration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he 
shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our 
Saviour." did Xovrpov 7ta\i8y£V£6ioiS y koci ava- 
xaivGDGSGoS IIvsv/iaTo? dyiov ov £^€X ££V *<f? 
7t\ov6iGDS, did 7 Ir/(jov XpiGtov rov (TODtrjpo? t/ijigdv. 
— Titus iii., 5, 6. 

He sprinkles also with the water of baptism when 
his ministers and ambassadors administer this ordi- 
nance. They act for him, and their act is ac- 
counted his. "When therefore the Lord knew that 
the Pharisees heard that Jesus made and baptized 
more disciples than John, though Jesus baptized 
not, €/3a7rri^8Vy but his disciples." — John iv., I, 2. 
He sprinkles many nations meritoriously by his 
blood that purges away our guilt, efficaciously by 
his spirit that regenerates and sanctifies the soul, 
and sacramentally by his ministering servants when 
they baptize with water in his name and as his rep- 
resentatives in this respect, as well as in preaching 
the gospel, with which the ordinance is connected. 
" Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though 
God did beseech you, by us, we pray you, in Christ's 
stead, be ye reconciled to God." 

The apostle Paul also refers to the baptism of the 
Jewish lav/, " the doctrine of baptisms," panti- 
&/m&v Sidaxr}?, Heb. vL, 2 ; many of which were by 
sprinkling. — Num. xix., 13. " Whosoever toucheth 
the dead body of any man that is dead, and puri- 
fieth not himself, defileth the tabernacle of the 
Lord, and that soul shall be cut off from the Lord, 



BAPTISM. 



25 



because the water of reparation was not sprinkled 
upon him," pit The son of Sirach, refer- 
ring to this sprinkling, calls it baptism. — Ecclesias- 
ticus, xxxiv., 30. /3a7tTig6pievo$ ano veupov nai 
naXiv cent 6 )jl£v oS avrov ti oocpk\rf6Bv rep Xovrpcp 
avrov. " He that washeth himself after touching 
a dead body, if he touch it again what availeth his 
washing." The Xovrpcp is the same word used by 
Paul (Titus iii., 5), " the washing of regeneration 
and renewing of the Holy Ghost," the washing, the 
baptism, in relation both to the body and the soul, 
was by sprinkling. 

This is still further evident from a direct com- 
parison of those things by the same apostle (Heb. 
ix., 13, 14. — " For if the blood of bulls and of goats, 
and the ashes of an heifer, sprinkling the unclean, 
pavri2,ov6a rovS kekoivgdjusvov?, sanctifieth to 
the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the 
blood of Christ, who through the Eternal Spirit 
offered himself without spot unto God, purge your 
conscience from dead works to serve the living God." 
flam 03, from which /3a7tti^oD is derived, is used 
by inspired writers for "sprinkle" (Isaiah lxiii., 3). — 
" I have trodden the wine-press alone, and of the 
people there was none with me, and I will tread 
them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury, 
and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my gar- 
ments, and I will stain all my raiment." 
Drop n The very same image is employed in 
the Book of Revelation to describe the triumphant 



26 



SERMONS. 



progress of the conquering Messiah (Rev. xix., 13). 
— " And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in 
blood," fiefia/i/xivov aijxari, where the word ren- 
dered dipped evidently means sprinkled from the 
bodies of his vanquished foes, over whom he passes 
in triumph. 

The Septuagint uses this word when sprinkling 
is evidently the meaning : " His body was wet, 
ifiacprf, from the dew of heaven." — Dan. iv., 32. 

The blood of the paschal lamb was sprinkled upon 
the lintels and door-posts of the children of Israel, 
and Christ our passover was sacrificed for us. Ex- 
ternal usage also corroborates the views which have 
been given respecting the meaning of the words 
Pant od and panri^oo. Judith is said to have 
washed herself near a fountain of water in the 
camp : ipanri^ero iv rrj 7taps/A./3oXrj ini riji 7rtjyrj$ 
rov i>SaTo?. — Judith xii., 7. A modest woman 
would not attempt to bathe her whole body in the 
camp, being only at or near, not in the fountain, 
and who ever is so reckless as to bathe in a 
fountain ? 

Origen, the most learned of the ancient fathers, 
commenting on the baptism of John, quotes 
I. Kings, xviii., 33, and uses the word fianriZoD four 
times, two in describing the pouring out of the wa- 
ter upon the sacrifice and twice in application to 
the baptism of John. 

Homer, in his poem describing the battle of the 
frogs and mice, represents the lake as ifianTETGd, 



BAPTISM. 



27 



sprinkled with the blood of frogs, certainly not 
immersed. 

The practice of the apostles still further confirms 
the views already presented in the usage of the 
language by writers inspired and uninspired. 

Wherever they went and their message was re- 
ceived in faith, they baptized in houses, by the road- 
side, in jail, or wherever they might be ; Lydia 
and the jailer are baptized forthwith, and three 
thousand in one day after the sermon of Peter on 
the day of Pentecost. Paul himself, rising up, was 
baptized, dvaGtaS El3a7tri(j^rj. — Acts ix., 18; xxii., 
16, olvolGXolZ (3a7tti(jai. 

The nature of the ordinance being a symbolical 
action requires the practice of pouring or sprinkling. 
As in the Lord's Supper, a square inch of bread 
and a spoonful of wine are sufficient to answer the 
purpose of the institution, and better than a full 
meal, so a little water in baptism illustrates the 
inward purifying better than covering the whole 
person in water. 

This principle our Lord has explained in washing 
the disciples' feet : " Peter saith unto him, Thou 
shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, 
If I wash thee not thou hast no part with me. 
Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet 
only but also my hands and my head. Jesus 
saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save 
to wash his feet, but is clean, every whit." — John 
xiii., 8, 10. 



28 



SERMONS. 



Let us examine the position taken on the other 
side of this question. 

The name by which they claim to be known, the 
Baptists, is yielded to them by courtesy, not be- 
cause it is admitted by other denominations that 
they themselves are not baptized, any more than it 
is admitted in calling those who deny the trinity 
Unitarians, that they themselves do not believe in 
the unity of God, or calling the Church of Rome 
Catholics, that they themselves do not belong to 
the Church universal. They are properly called 
Anabaptists, as they were at first in the days of 
Luther, and Anti-Psedobaptists because they baptize 
again those who had been baptized by other de- 
nominations, and because they deny the propriety 
of infant baptism. The question with them is made 
of vital importance, for they teach that none are in 
the Church of God who are not immersed by them. 
It is proper then that those who do not think with 
them should give a reason for the hope that is in 
them, and as the appeal has been taken to the orig- 
inals by our opponents on the subject, it is is neces- 
sary that they be met on that ground. 

They claim that total immersion is the only 
proper baptism, and all who are not immersed are 
therefore among the uncircumcised and the un- 
clean. Not being in the kingdom of God they must 
therefore belong to the kingdom of Satan, for there 
is no neutral ground. 

They occupy the place of the Judaizing teachers 



BAPTISM. 



29 



in the days of the apostles, who insisted that unless 
men were circumcised, and kept the law of Moses, 
they could not be saved. 

And what are the arguments by which our im- 
mersed friends sustain their position ? 

They say that the word /3a7tri^GD means, to im- 
merse, and nothing else ; and ii$ means, into, and, 
under; and ex, from under. They quote writers on 
our side who admit that the word for baptism some- 
times means to immerse, and hence claim that the 
question is given up. But the same men thought 
otherwise, and contended for the propriety of bap- 
tism by sprinkling and pouring. These authorities 
then are against them. — As are also the translators 
of the Bible into our language, for instead of render- 
ing fioLTtriSiGD always by, immerse, they never render 
it so at all. Indeed, the word immerse, expressing a 
doctrine without which many say there can be no 
visible church, is not found in the English Bible. 
At least, I have not been able to find it. 

Moreover Schleusner, the great lexicographer of 
the Greek Testament, declares that it is never read 
in that sense in the New Testament : "In hac autem. 
significatione nnnquam in N. T.... legiUir." He adds, 
indeed, that it is used in that sense frequently in 
Greek writers : " sed eo frequentms in scriptt.gr. legi- 
tar." And the only example which he gives will 
not help our Baptist friends much, for there it means 
to be drozvned. " Diod. Sic. i.e. 36 ; De Nilo exun- 
dante tgov x € P& a i° v ^VP lc ^ v Tc * itoXka vno rov 



30 



SERMONS. 



norajiov 7T8piXtjcp^evra diacpSelperai pannBio^ 
jitva. Multa terrestrium animalium a flumine 
deprehensa submersione periuntT — (Many land ani- 
mals, overtaken by the river and submerged in it, 
perished.) The word never expresses their prac- 
tice of immersion and emersion at the same time. 

If the word means, as they insist, total immersion, 
and nothing else, then when they have put their can- 
didates under the water, they have nothing further 
to do — they should leave them there — what warrant 
have they to undo the work of immersion ? 

No one is ever represented as immersed in the 
Holy Ghost, or in the blood of Christ. If the sign 
then must illustrate and confirm the thing signified, 
the element must be applied by sprinkling or pour- 
ing, as has been shown, and not by immersion. 

So far are even the external writers from teaching 
that the word for baptism means immersion, and 
nothing else, that when they mean immersion they 
use other words in distinction from panri^co. 

Dr. Wall instances a case from Mr. Sydenham, as 
delivered by the oracle {olgko* /3a7tti^GJ dvvai deroi 
6v$6/jli$ €<jti) in which instance if dvvai signifies 
to plunge wholly under water, as it certainly does, 
then f3a7tri^oo must mean something less than total 
immersion. " Baptize him as a bottle, but it is not 
lawful to plunge him wholly under water." 

The same distinction is made in another instance 
from Shrivellii's and Robinson's lexicons, but then 
/3a7tr c3 is used instead of /3a7cri^oo. Markvii., 1-5, 



BAPTISM. 



3* 



shows that men were baptized when only their 
hands were washed, and this was often done by 
pouring water on them, and tables or couches could 
not be immersed when they were baptized. The 
word for submerging is 6voo dvvco, and naradvoj. 
In these senses these texts are used by the Sep- 
tuagint. — Ex. xv., 5 : £C jtovtaj iuaXvipev avrovS. 
uaradvffav sit fivSov ajfel XiSoS." — He covereth 
them with the sea, they went down into the deep 
as a stone ; — and also xv. 10 : u ixaXvipev avrovt 
SaXaaaa. sSvffav cagel fxoXifio* ev vSari Gcpodpcp." 
— The sea covered them, they sank like lead in the 
mighty waters. 

The immersion scheme represents the Saviour 
making a promise which he did not fulfill. It 
makes him say — " ye shall be immersed in the Holy 
Ghost not many days hence," whereas the Holy 
Ghost came on them, was poured out on them, and 
abode upon them. I do not say that our good 
brethren mean to blaspheme the Son of God, but 
their argument, if true, would go to prove him a 
false prophet. But let God be true, but every man 
a liar. 

They rely on the particles d<$ 9 iv, into and in, and 
€x 9 from or out of, which they say must mean going 
under the water. Now ezV often means simply to a 
place : — " Jesus cometh to the sepulchre, eiS to 
fxvrj fAEiov , it was a cave, and a stone was laid upon 
it." — John xi., 38. Jesus did not enter the cave. 
Also John xx., 3, 4, 5 : They came to the sepul- 



32 



SERMONS. 



chre, eis to jxvrj}xsiov y " but did not enter." The pro- 
per phrase for entering into is eitfe pxopiai si? (Matt, 
xv., 1 1) : " Not that which entereth into the mouth 
defileth the man." 

€K often means simply from, not out of (John vi., 
23): " then came vessels from Tiberias." 

" Jesus came up from the water ; ano rov vdaroS: 
the particle does not mean, from out of, or from 
under. " Depart from me"; an' i/xov : Matt, 
vii., 23 ; xxv., 41. 

iv often signifies at or to a place ; Rom. viii., 34 : 
" Who is at the right hand of God " ; iv degia rov 

0EOV. 

The people of Jerusalem and Judea, and all the 
country round about Jordan, were baptized of 
John "; iv rep 'lopdavrf. This cannot mean standing 
in or being immersed in the waters of Jordan, for 
another evangelist, John, says : " These things were 
done in Bethabara, beyond Jordan, where John 
was baptizing." He could not baptize indifferently 
at either place. 

John was baptising in Enon, iv Aivov, near to 
Salem, because there was much water there ; vdara 
TtoWoty many waters. — John iii., 23. The name 
means springs or fountains, because well supplied 
with fountains of water. It is not said that John 
baptized in these waters, but in the town. If it had 
been the intention to aid the Baptist scheme, he 
would have told us the people were immersed in 
these fountains, but he does no such thing. The 



BAPTISM. 



33 



multitudes that attended John's ministry required a 
plentiful supply of sweet and fresh water from the 
springs, and therefore John selected that place for 
the exercise of his ministry. Those denominations 
that have camp-meetings are careful to select places 
where the multitude can have plenty of water for 
drinking, and culinary and other necessary pur- 
poses. 

The case of Philip and the eunuch (Acts viii., 38, 
39) is relied upon to prove immersion. The whole 
force of the argument is derived from the meaning 
attached to the expressions going down into, and com- 
ing up out of the water. Those expressions either 
prove immersion, or they do not. If they do not, 
the witness may be dismissed ; if they do, then as 
these expressions are applied in common to Philip 
and the eunuch, both were immersed. The minis- 
ter then must go under the water himself every time 
that he immerses another. 

On the day of Pentecost, Peter begins his sermon 
at nine o'clock in the morning. After the services 
and conversation with the hearers, three thousand 
are baptized that same day. The narrative is in- 
consistent with the supposition that three thousand 
were immersed that day. Here are miracles sup- 
posed about which the inspired historian is strangely 
silent. Suitable baptistries or places for immersing 
this great multitude are suddenly provided of which 
there is no record nor trace ; — a sufficient supply of 
suitable raiment for their covering is promptly fur- 



34 



SERMONS. 



nished, of which no one takes any notice whether it 
comes from the hands of men or angels, and then, in 
the fragment of the day that remains, each of the 
twelve, if they are all engaged, must converse with 
and immerse two hundred and fifty persons— less 
than two minutes for each person, without leaving 
the apostles or the converts a moment for refresh- 
ment or rest until the going down of the sun. 

The jailer and his family were baptized in the 
prison at midnight, and Lydia and her family in her 
house, and not a word said about the indispensable 
ceremony of putting them under the water. All 
these things must be believed by those who require 
an explicit warrant for every thing in a positive in- 
stitution. 

Rom. vi., and Col. ii., are relied upon to sustain 
the scheme of immersion. 

These passages relate to the meaning of baptism, 
not its form. They describe the union with Christ and 
communion with him in his graces, sufferings, obedi- 
ence, and death, resurrection and glory, to which be- 
lievers in him are entitled in the covenant of grace, 
of which baptism is to them the sign and the seal. 

If the form of baptism is here referred to, what is 
it ? Our Baptist friends say it is immersion, because 
we are immersed into Christ, and immersed into his 
death, and buried with him. 

What is meant by being immersed into his death ? 
If buried with Christ is in allusion to his burial, 
there is nothing in immersion like Christ being 



BAPTISM. 



35 



buried in a sepulcher hewn out of a rock, and not 
put into a grave and covered with earth ; and 
Christ, dying on the cross, is not illustrated by im- 
mersion. Papists and Puseyites have the advantage 
of Baptists in this respect, for they use the sign of 
the cross at baptism. What is said of this bap- 
tism is true only of those who have the baptism 
of the spirit, that they are risen with him by 
the faith of the operation of God, who raiseth 
him from the dead (Col. ii., 12) ; made alive with 
him, forgiven all their trespasses (v. 13) ; and who 
will say of every person who is immersed in water 
that they are alive with Christ, and forgiven all 
their trespasses ? 

But allowing all for which immersionists contend, 
that fioLnriSiGo means immersion and nothing else, 
and going down, eii vdoop, means going under the 
water, and coming up, ex, from under the water, 
what is the scene exhibited in the baptism of John ? 
The Baptist goes down under the water, and all 
Jerusalem and Judea, and the country round about 
Jordon, go down with him, and in some lower deep 
in the bottom of the river, he immerses them. If 
John, officiating under the water, has some diving 
apparatus by which he can breathe, are all Jerusa- 
lem and Judea, and the country round about Jordan, 
equally accommodated ? How these multitudes 
are furnished with proper garments for this immer- 
sion, or whether it was performed with their ordinary 
raiment, or without any raiment at all, those who 



36 



SERMONS. 



insist upon having everything in a positive institu- 
tion explicitly defined do not inform us. 

The formula, " in the name of the Father and of the 
Son and of the Holy Ghost," more literally ei$ 9 into 
the name, etc., is a general explanation of the design 
of the ordinance to signify and seal the introduction 
of the person baptized into a covenant relation with 
the Triune God as his Father, Redeemer and Sanc- 
tifier, and his covenant obligations to be devoted to 
his service and glory. 

Secondly. The signification of this ordinance. 

The water illustrates that purifying influence upon 
the soul which is wrought by the blood of Christ, 
the blood of sprinkling, in removing its guilt, its 
obligation to punishment, and the grace of the Holy 
Spirit in renewing and sanctifying the soul. " How 
much more shall the blood of Christ, who through 
the Eternal Spirit offered himself without spot unto 
God, purge your conscience from dead works to 
serve the living God." — Heb. ix., 14. " I, indeed," 
says John, " baptize you with water unto repent- 
ance : but he that cometh after me is mightier than 
I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear : he shall 
baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire" — 
Matt, iii., 11. 

" Not by works of righteousness which we have 
done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the 
washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy 
Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly, through Jesus 
Christ our Saviour." — Titus iii., 5, 6. 



BAPTISM. 



37 



" Can any forbid water, that these should not be 
baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well 
as we." — Acts x., 47. 

As the water is the proper element for cleansing 
the body from its pollutions, so the Spirit cleanses 
the soul from its moral defilement. The prophecies 
respecting the pouring out of the Spirit are fulfilled 
in the baptism of the Holy Ghost. 

As the persons of men are purged from their 
moral defilement by the influence of the Holy Ghost, 
so their relations are purged by the blood of atone- 
ment, the blood of sprinkling, which speaketh bet- 
ter things than the blood of Abel, which cries to 
God not for punishment, but for pardon and life. 
" Repent and be baptized, every one of you, for the 
remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the 
Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you and to 
your children, and to all that are afar off, even as 
many as the Lord our God shall call." — Acts ii., 38, 
39. Baptism is the sign and seal both of remission 
of sins in the name of Jesus Christ, and of the influ- 
ence of the Holy Ghost in sanctifying the soul. " So 
shall he sprinkle many nations." — Is. lii„ 15. 

The act of sprinkling indicates the personal appli- 
cation of the blood of atonement for the removal 
of the guilt of sin and the influence of the Holy 
Ghost for restoring the image of God in knowledge, 
righteousness, and true holiness ; — " Washed, and 
sanctified, and justified, in the name of the Lord 
Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." 



3S 



SERMONS. 



The formula, "into the name of the Father and of 
the Son and of the Holy Ghost," indicates that by 
baptism is signified and sealed our union in the 
covenant of his grace with the Mediator of the 
covenant, the Lord Jesus Christ, and consequently 
our communion with him in all the blessings which 
he hath procured by his mediation on our behalf. 
We have fellowship, a common interest with him in 
his graces, sufferings, obedience, death, resurrection, 
and glory. We thus receive by union with him 
regeneration, justification, adoption, sanctification, 
" assurance of God's love, peace of conscience, joy 
in the Holy Ghost, increase of grace, and persever- 
ance therein to the end. At death, our souls, made 
perfect in holiness, immediately pass into glory. 
Our bodies, being still united to Christ, do rest in 
their graves until the resurrection, when being raised 
up in glory we shall be openly acknowledged and 
acquitted in the day of judgment, and made per- 
fectly blessed in the full enjoyment of God to all 
eternity." And being engrafted into Christ, we are 
through him, the Mediator, united to the Father 
and the Holy Spirit, consecrated to the service and 
glory of the Triune God as living sacrifices, to be 
forever employed in showing forth his glory, and the 
Triune God is united to us, and signifies and seals 
the gift of himself to us — the Father as our Father, 
the Son as our Redeemer, and the Holy Spirit as 
our Sanctifier, Comforter, and Guide. "Thou hast 
made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in 



BAPTISM. 



39 



all things and sure ; this is all my salvation and it is 
all my desire." " My beloved is mine, and I am 
his." — Song ii., 16. 

The subjects of this ordinance are believers and 
their children. " Baptism is not to be administered 
to any that are out of the visible church till they 
profess their faith in Christ and obedience to Him ; 
but the infants of such as are members of the visible 
church are to be baptized." 

The necessity of faith and repentance as prere- 
/ quisites to baptism, in the case of adults, is a part 
of our system. " If thou believest with all thine 
heart, thou mayest," says Philip to the eunuch. 
" Repent and be baptized," says Peter. " He that 
believes and is baptized," says our Divine Master. 



II. 



'* Then Peter said unto them, repent and be baptized, every 
one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of 
sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. 

" For the promise is unto you and to your children, and to all 
that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call." 
— Acts ii., 38, 39. 

HAVING considered the form and signification 
of Baptism, let us inquire who are its proper 
subjects, and what are the uses to which it may be 
applied. 

Adults must first profess their faith in Christ, and 
obedience to him. On this part of the subject we 
have no controversy with immersionists. And 
when they have proved the necessity of faith and 
repentance in order to the baptism of an adult, they 
have proved nothing against us, for this is our 
doctrine. 

If a materialist proves ever so clearly that man as 
to his body is material, he has proved nothing 
against the immateriality of the soul. 

If a Unitarian proves that Jesus the Messiah was 
a man, he proves nothing against those who believe 
that " He is both God and Man in two distinct 
natures and one person forever." The grand ques- 
tion remains — Are the infant seed of believing mem- 

40 



BAPTISM. 



41 



bersof the visible church proper subjects of baptism? 
We take the affirmative — anti-psedobaptists the 
negative side of this question. 

The propriety of infant baptism appears : 

1. From the renewal of the promise to believers 
and their seed on the introduction of the new cov- 
enant dispensation. The promise is to you and to 
your children ; baptism is the seal of the promise ; 
therefore baptism belongs to you and your children. 

This is according to the uniform teaching of the 
Word of God. From the beginning of the world 
the family shares in the relations of its head. When 
God made a covenant with Adam he made a cove- 
nant with his family. 

And when, after the fall, God receives back his 
apostate children to himself through the promised 
seed of the woman, who should bruise the serpent's 
head, he takes back to his family the believer and 
his seed. 

When he makes a covenant with Noah, and seals 
it with a rainbow, he makes a covenant with his 
seed, the human family, that he will not again send 
a flood to drown the world. 

2. When he takes Abraham into a covenant with 
himself, he takes also his infant offspring. He seals 
the promise — " I will be a God unto thee and to thy 
seed after thee," by requiring the seed to be circum- 
cised at eight days old. — Gen. xvii., 7, 10, 12. 

This circumcision was a seal of the righteousness 
of faith. The principle of the church membership 



42 



SERMONS. 



of the infants of God's people, and the right and 
duty of confirming it by a seal upon their persons, 
was thus distinctly recognized in the constitution of 
the Church of God. This principle, until the intro- 
duction of the New Dispensation, for a period of 
eighteen hundred years, was never called in ques- 
tion. Any objections, then, against the reasonable- 
ness or propriety of administering to infants ordi- 
nances which they can not understand, and laying 
on them obligations to which they can not consent, 
is an implied charge against God, who beyond all 
controversy did require these very things. 

3. The Church of God is one under both dispen- 
sations. " For if thou wert cut out of the olive 
tree, which is wild by nature, and wert grafted con- 
trary to nature into a good olive tree, how much 
more shall these, which be the natural branches, be 
grafted into their own olive tree." — Rom. xi. 24. 
The tree is the church, and it is the same while the 
Jews were the church, since they were cut off for 
their unbelief, and the Gentiles were grafted in, and 
will be still the same when the Jews shall be 
restored to their own olive tree. 

This is further proved by the language of Peter: 
" For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet 
shall the Lord your God raise up unto you, of your 
brethren, like unto me ; him shall ye hear in all 
things whatsoever he shall say unto you," and who- 
soever " will not hear that prophet shall be destroyed 
from among the people." — Acts iii., 22, 23. The 



BAPTISM. 



43 



people in this place is the visible church of God, 
from which the body of the Jewish nation were cut 
off for their unbelief. It can not mean the church 
invisible, for its members are never lost; nor the 
nation of the Jews, for they are the persons cut off. 

A constitutional privilege, then, which had ex- 
isted in the church from the days of Abraham, and 
even of Adam, must continue in the one church 
until it is taken away by Jehovah himself. There 
is not a shadow of evidence that the membership 
of the infants of God's children has been revoked 
and its seal forbidden. These privileges therefore 
remain. 

4. The silence of the Scriptures in relation to 
any such withdrawing of the privileges of the 
children of God's people, is itself demonstration 
against any such withdrawal. It is inconceivable 
that not a word of complaint should be uttered, not 
a word of consolation given, under so sore a bereave- 
ment. Instead of the increase of privileges which 
they are authorized by the prophets to expect in 
the last and most perfect dispensation of the cove- 
nant of grace on earth, without a moment's warn- 
ing, without a word of alleviation to the sore trou- 
ble, believers find their children, dear to them as 
their own soul, cast out among the uncircumcised 
and the unclean, and not a tear of sorrow is seen, 
not a sigh or moan is heard. Are these Christians 
stocks or stones, or the inspired historians incom- 
petent or faithless, that they pass unnoticed the 



44 



SERMONS. 



most affecting and important events in the history 
of that Church of the Redeemer which he pur- 
chased with his own blood ? 

When the old form of the seal, circumcision, is 
superseded, and another, better adapted to the 
church of all nations, and countries, and climes, is 
substituted, so great is the reluctance to give it up 
that a council of apostles and elders must convene 
at Jerusalem to settle the question — and yet we are 
asked to believe that the entire seal, in every form, 
and the relations, and privileges, and obligations 
which it illustrates and confirms, are withdrawn, 
and silence like that of the grave rests upon the 
whole subject. 

5. The silence of Holy Scripture in relation to 
the repeal of one of the Church's dearest privileges 
can only be accounted for by the simple fact that 
no such repeal was ever made, nor ever came it 
into the heart of Him who took up the little children 
in his arms and blessed them for the reason that of 
such is the kingdom of God. " And they brought 
young children to him, that he should touch them ; 
and his disciples rebuked those that brought them. 
But when Jesus saw it he was much displeased, and 
said unto them, Suffer the little children to come 
unto me, and forbid them not : for of such is the 
kingdom of God. And he took them up in his 
arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them." — 
Mark x., 13, 14, 16; Luke xviii., 16. 

If they belong to the kingdom they are in his 



BAPTISM. 



45 



church, and not in the kingdom of Satan. Would 
he declare them blessed who belong to the kingdom 
of the god of this world ? If the kingdom of God 
here means the church invisible, or the church 
triumphant, then, as the greater comprehends the 
less, if to them belong the blessings to them 
belongs the sign. If they do not belong to the 
church at all, then they are subjects of the kingdom 
of Satan, and the models to which the children of 
the kingdom of God are to be conformed. 

6. The apostles, in laying the foundations of the 
new dispensation of the covenant, act upon the 
assumption that this great constitutional principle 
has not been disturbed. The whole history takes 
for granted the principle with which the Jews were 
familiar from the days of Abraham, that the child- 
ren of believers were to be recognized as in cove- 
nant with God, and receive the seal of the cove- 
nant. The apostles baptize whole households on 
the faith of the heads of the families respectively. 
Lydia's family were all baptized, and no mention is 
made of the faith of any of her household but her 
own. — Acts xvi., 14, 15. 

The case of the jailer at Philippi attests the 
truth : " And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus 
Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house ; 
and they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and 
to all that were in his house. And he took them 
the same hour and washed their stripes, and was 
baptized, he and all his straightway. And when he 



46 



SERMONS. 



had brought them into his house, he set meat before 
them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his 
house." In the original it is: " he rejoiced with all 
.his house, 7tE7tiaravKc^i rep Qscp, he believing in God." 
This is just as it would be if the principle for which 
we contend were universally admitted and acted 
on, but unaccountable on the contrary supposition. 
These instances being merely a sample of the pro- 
ceedings of the apostles, what occurred in these 
families .occurred in all other families under similar 
circumstances. 

7. The apostle Paul expressly decides that the 
privilege of the seal of the covenant, derived 
through Abraham, is continued to both Gentile and 
Jew: " And he received the sign of circumcision, a 
seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had 
yet being uncircumcised : that he might be the 
father of all them that believe, though they be not 
circumcised, that righteousness might be imputed 
unto them also ; And the father of circumcision to 
them who are not of the circumcision only, but who 
also walk in the steps of that faith of our father 
Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised. — 
Rom. iv., 11,12. 

Abraham is called the father of circumcision, 
because this ordinance, as a seal of the covenant, 
began with him, and by him was transmitted to all 
his believing seed, Jew and Gentile. Circumcision, 
the first name of the seal, is still used to express 
that seal. When circumcision has passed away, 



BAPTISM. 



47 



baptism occupies its place. The apostle uses cir- 
cumcision and baptism as expressing the same 
truth — Col. ii., II, 12: " In whom also ye are cir- 
cumcised with the circumcision made without hands, 
in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by 
the circumcision of Christ ; buried with him in 
baptism." Many things retain their first names 
when the particular circumstances that gave the 
name are changed. A candlestick, drawing its name 
from the stick of which it was made, is a candlestick 
still when made of gold. So the personal seal of 
the covenant is called circumcision still, though 
now it is in the pleasant form of baptism. The 
seal then continues to the uncircumcised, and the 
uncircumcised have no other seal than baptism, 
which is the same seal, though under a new form r 
given to Abraham and his seed, and therefore it; is 
to be applied, as in its old form, to believers and to 
their seed. 

8. The Apostle of the Gentiles decides a case 
which shows that the principle of infant member- 
ship in the church was known and unquestioned, 
and that it is to be liberally applied. " For the un- 
believing husband is sanctified by the wife, and the 
unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband : else 
were your children unclean ; but now are they holy." 
— I. Cor. vii., 14. Holy and unholy mean conse- 
crated to God and not consecrated to him. Holy 
describes membership in the church, unholy the 
want of such membership. It is declared by the 



4S 



SERMONS. 



apostle that if both parents are unbelievers, their 
children are not in the church ; but if both are 
believers, it is assumed they are in the church. But 
the question is, if one parent is a believer, and the 
other an unbeliever, what is the relation of the 
children — are they in the church, the kingdom of 
God, with the believing parent, or out of the church, 
and in the kingdom of Satan, with the unbelieving? 
The apostle decides that the parental relation is 
sanctified by the one believing parent, and therefore 
the privileges of the children are not withdrawn by 
the unbelief of the other. 

The evasion of the force of this testimony is by 
contradicting the whole usage of the language in 
rendering the words rendered holy and unholy by 
legitimate and illegitimate. The verse, according 
ta these translators, would read thus : For the un- 
believing husband is made legitimate by the wife, 
and the unbelieving wife is made legitimate by the 
husband : else were your children illegitimate ; but 
now are they legitimate. These words are never so 
used in the Bible. This rendering makes the apostle 
say what neither he nor any one else, not even these 
learned critics themselves believe, that the marriage 
of unbelievers is no better than concubinage, and 
their children are bastards. 

Although nothing is to be believed but what is 
taught us in the Word of God by direct declaration, 
or fair and necessary inference, yet a position fairly 
established by that only infallible rule of faith and 



BAPTISM. 



49 



of practice may be corroborated by the testimony 
of history. 

The historical argument is in favor of infant 
baptism. 

Justin Martyr, who wrote about forty years after 
the apostolic age, says : " We have not received the 
carnal but spiritual circumcision by baptism, and it 
is enjoined on all persons to receive it in the same 
way." He evidently considers baptism as being in 
the place of circumcision, and consequently, like 
that ancient rite, designed for infants as well 
as for adults. In one of his apologies for the 
Christians, he observes " several persons among us 
of sixty or seventy years old, who were made 
disciples to Christ from their childhood." If infant 
children were made disciples, they were undoubt- 
edly baptized. 

Irenaeus, who wrote sixty-seven years after the 
apostles, and was then an aged man, says concern- 
ing Christ : " He came to save all persons who by 
him are regenerated unto God ; — infants, little ones, 
youths, and elderly persons. He speaks of infants 
and little ones as being regenerated. It is evident, 
from his own words, that he had reference to their 
baptism, for he tells us : " When Christ gave his 
apostles the command of regenerating unto God, he 
said, go, and teach all nations, baptizing them!* 
Justin Martyr says they are " regenerated in the 
same way of regeneration in which we have been 
regenerated, for they are washed with water in the 



5° 



SERMONS. 



name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy 
Ghost." 

Tertullian flourished one hundred years after the 
apostles. He witnessed to the fact of the common 
practice of infant baptism ? He asks : " Why that 
innocent age made such haste to baptism." He 
admits its propriety in some cases of necessity, of 
sickness, and danger of death. He does not declare 
it unlawful in any case, but advises to defer it not 
only until adult age, but until after marriage. He 
is the only man in all antiquity whose writings have 
come down to us, who has said any thing at all 
against the practice of baptizing infants. 

Origen, who flourished in the beginning of the 
third century, and was for some time contemporary 
with Tertullian, says : " Infants are baptized for the 
remission of sins." " The church had a tradition 
or command from the apostles to give baptism to 
infants." Origen and the ancient fathers do no' 
speak of infant baptism as though it was denied or 
opposed by any one ; they mention it as a practice 
generally known and approved, and for the purpos 
of illustrating and confirming other points that were 
disputed. 

Cyprian, and the rest of the Council of Carthage, 
A.D. 253, on a question whether an infant might be 
baptized before the eighth day, decided : " Tha' 
an infant might be baptized on the second or third 
day, or at any time after its birth." 

Ambrose, who wrote about 274 years after th 



BAPTISM. 



5i 



apostles, declares expressly — " that infant baptism 
was practiced in his time, and in the time of the 
apostles." 

Chrysostom observes — " that persons may be 
baptized either in infancy, in middle age, or in old 
age." 

Jerome says : " If infants be not baptized, the sin 
of omitting their baptism is laid to the parent's 
charge." 

Augustine, who wrote at the same time, about 
280 years after the apostles, speaks " of infant 
baptism as one of those practices which was not 
instituted by any council, but had always been in 
use." The whole church of Christ, he informs us, 
had constantly held that infants were baptized for 
the forgiveness of sins ; that he had never heard or 
read of any Christian, Catholic or sectary, who 
held otherwise ; that no Christians of any sect ever 
denied it to be useful or necessary. 

Pelagius owns " that baptism ought to be adminis- 
tered to infants, and affirms that he never heard of 
any, not even the most impious heretic, that would 
say such a thing of infants ; he had said that men 
slander him as if he denied the sacrament of baptism 
to infants." 

Dr. Wall, who enjoyed the best advantages for 
being acquainted with infant baptism, and who made 
this the principal subject of his studies and inqui- 
ries, briefly sums up the evidence on both sides in 
the following words : " For the first four hundred 



52 



SERMONS. 



years there appears only one man, Tertullian, who 
advised the delay of infant baptism in some cases, 
and one Gregory, who did perhaps practice such de- 
lay in the case of his own children, but no society of 
men, so thinking, so practicing, or any one man, 
saying it was unlawful to baptize infants. So in 
the next seven hundred years there is not so much 
as one man to be found who either spoke for or prac- 
ticed any such delay, but all the contrary. And 
when about the year 1130 one sect among the Wal- 
denses or Albigenses declared against the baptizing 
of infants as being incapable of salvation, the main 
body of that people rejected their opinion, and 
they of them who held that opinion quickly dwin- 
dled away and disappeared, there being no more per- 
sons heard of holding that tenet until the rising of 
the German Anti-Paedobaptists, in the year 1522." 
[Reed's Apology in Ridgely.] 

The objections to infant baptism are mainly the 
following : 

I. "It is useless and improper to administer an 
ordinance to an infant that can not understand it, 
nor consent to the duties which it binds upon its 
subjects." The case is the same in these respects 
with circumcision, and therefore not to be reasoned 
against, but rebuked as constructive blasphemy 
against the only true God. " O man, who art thou 
that repliest against God ? " Does the moral law 
wait for man's consent before it binds him to obe- 
dience ? 



BAPTISM. 



53 



2. Faith and repentance are required in order to 
baptism. " He that believes and is baptized shall 
be saved." — Mark xvi., 16; Acts ii., 38. 

This and kindred passages either respect the case 
of infants or they do not. If they do not, they are 
to be regarded as out of consideration on this point. 
If they do, then they teach the doctrine of infant 
perdition, for faith is a prerequisite to salvation, and 
they are incapable of faith. " He that believeth shall 
be saved, he that believeth not shall be damned." 
The sect among the Waldenses who rejected infant 
baptism were the only consistent Baptists, for they 
rejected the baptism of infants because they were 
incapable of salvation. Nobody believes that now, not 
even the Baptists themselves. They are not as bad 
as their scheme, nor as cruel as their argument. 

3. They contend that a positive institution re- 
quires an explicit warrant, by express command or 
approved example. They will admit nothing which 
depends on reasoning from the Scriptures. In this 
they condemn the Saviour and the apostles, who 
prove their doctrines by reasoning out of the Scrip- 
tures. They are inconsistent with themselves, for 
they admit females to the Lord's Supper without 
an explicit warrant. They appeal to the word 
avSpGO'/toS, which they say means both man and 
woman. (Let a man examine himself.) This is 
their inference, and not the explicit warrant which 
they require. This word is used nineteen times in 
Scripture to distinguish man from woman : " There- 



54 



SERMONS. 



fore shall a man leave his father and mother, and 
cleave to his wife." They have no explicit warrant 
for baptistries in their churches or immersion of 
their converts, and it has been proved that they have 
no warrant for them at all. 

A great social principle is at stake, and in its most 
important exercise, that children follow the condi- 
tion of their parents. The Baptist scheme would 
expunge that principle from the moral and religious 
code, and denounce the wisdom of God as folly. If 
the question were, shall the children of American 
citizens, born in the country, be accounted citizens 
or aliens, entitled by their birth to the privileges and 
bound by the obligations of citizens, or neither en- 
titled to the former nor bound by the latter, there 
would rise from the great heart of the nation a re- 
sponse so loud and universal, and overwhelming, in 
favor of the citizenship, the privileges, and the 
duties of the native-born children of our loyal citi- 
zens, as would never allow the question to be mooted 
again. And is a birthright in the kingdom of God, 
his church on earth, less valuable than American 
citizenship, or less influential to enforce, on obedient 
and grateful hearts, devotion to its interests and 
obedience to its laws? 

Fourthly. The uses of this ordinance. 

I. It condenses to a bright and burning focus the 
great truths of the everlasting covenant, the Trinity, 
man's apostacy from God, his condemnation and pol- 
lution, the mediation of Jesus, regeneration by the 



BAPTISM. 



55 



Holy Spirit, union with Christ the Mediator by the 
indwelling of the Spirit, justification through the 
blood and righteousness of the surety Emanuel, 
adoption into the family of God, perfect holiness 
and eternal blessedness in the vision and fruition of 
the Triune God, and everlasting devotion to his ser- 
vice and glory. 

2. The solemn relations and mutual engagements 
between God and his ransomed, which it signifies 
and seals, should stir up the people of God to greater 
faith, to more devout affections, and more cordial 
and entire consecration in heart and life to their 
covenant God. Every time they witness its admin- 
istration, they should remember and repent of their 
departures from the holy covenant, and lay hold on 
it afresh, as all their salvation and all their desire. 
They should remember that as all that God is he has 
made over to them for their safety and comfort in 
time and in eternity, so all that they are and have, 
they have devoted to him, to be employed in his ser- 
vice and for his glory. " Ye are not your own, ye 
are bought with a price ; wherefore glorify God with 
your bodies and with your spirits, which are his." 
Holiness to the Lord is written upon your whole 
persons, relations, and powers, and it were sacrilege 
to employ them for any other purpose than that to 
which they are set apart by Him whose they are by 
a double right — creation at the first, and then, when 
sin had wrought their ruin, by redemption from eter- 
nal death. 



SERMONS. 



Parents who have devoted your children to God 
in baptism, remember that they are holy, that they 
belong unto the Lord, and that he has entrusted 
them to you to bring them up for him in the nurture 
and admonition of the Lord. " Train up a child in 
the way he should go, and when he is old he will not 
depart from it." Instruct them in the way of salva- 
tion, and their own duty in relation to it, their 
sinful and miserable condition by nature, the way of 
salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, and their 
own solemn covenant obligations to live a life of 
faith upon the Son of God. " These words which I 
command thee this day shalt be in thy heart, and 
thou shalt teach them diligently to thy children and 
shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, 
and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou 
liest down, and when thou risest up," 

Pray for them in the closet and in your family. 
Lay hold by faith upon the covenant, and plead in 
prayer the promise, " I will be a God to you and to 
your seed after you," — plead it for yourselves that 
you may be saved, and plead the promise for them, 
that they may be saved. And as you must prove 
your faith in the promise respecting yourself to be 
sincere by corresponding exertions to make your 
calling and election sure, so prove your faith in the 
promise that respects the salvation of your children 
by using all diligence that they may be brought 
savingly within the bonds of the covenant. Plead 
with him that other promise, " I will pour water 



BAPTISM. 



57 



upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry- 
ground. I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and 
my blessing upon thine offspring; and they shall 
grow up among the grass as willows by the water- 
courses. One shall say, I am the Lord's, and 
another shall call himself by the name of Jacob, 
and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the 
Lord, and surname himself by the name of Israel." 
Wrestle with God for your families as Jacob 
wrestled with the angel of the covenant and pre- 
vailed. Imitate the Syro-Phcenician woman and 
take no denial, and at length he will say unto you 
even as unto her, " Be it unto you even as ye will ; 
go in peace, your children are saved." 

Exercise over your children a vigilant and firm, 
yet kind and patient government and control. See 
the necessity for this in the contrasted histories of 
Abraham and Eli. Of the one there is recorded this 
goodly report : " I know Abraham that he will com- 
mand his children and his household after him, and 
they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and 
judgment ; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham 
that which he hath spoken of him." — Gen. xviii., 19. 
Consider also the fearful consequences of neglect in 
this matter as illustrated in the family of Eli : " I 
will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of 
every one that heareth it shall tingle, .... because 
his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained 
them not." — I. Sam. iii., 11, 13. 

To instruction, prayer, and authority, add a holy 



58 



SERMONS. 



example, so that you may say to them without 
shame, Be followers of us as we are of Christ. Not 
only point the road to heaven, but lead the way. 
Show in your own lives what true godliness is, and 
and then try to induce them to follow your exam- 
ple. If you would not that the blood of the souls 
of your own offspring should be found in your 
skirts in the great day, if you would not see them 
on the left hand of the Judge among the accursed, 
and charging the guilt of their blood upon you, be 
up and doing while it is called to-day, before the 
night come wherein no man can work, that they 
may not go to the place of torment. 

If you would desire to see your children adorning 
the doctrine of God the Saviour, and standing with 
you at the right hand of the Judge at the last day, 
and spending with you a blissful eternity in his 
presence, where is fullness of joy, and at his right 
hand, where are pleasures forevermore, cease not 
continually to train them up in the nurture and ad- 
monition of the Lord, laboring in birth for them 
that Christ may be formed in their hearts, the hope 
of glory, and surrounded at last with your glorified 
family, you may say to your covenant God, " Here 
are we and the children thou hast given us." 

Baptized Children and Youth — The vows of God 
are upon you. You are consecrated to the service 
and glory of God. To appropriate to your own use 
the church plate, or any other thing devoted to 
God, were a venial offense compared with employing 



BAPTISM. 



59 



in the service of Satan, the world, and the flesh, 
those faculties of soul and body which by the divine 
law have been consecrated to the service of God in 
Christ forevermore. 

From the solemn covenant which has been sealed 
to you at your baptism, you cannot go back but at 
the cost of most aggravated sin and misery. You 
must break through all the restraints which the God 
of grace has thrown around you to prevent you 
from being your own destroyers. You may kick 
at the bowels of the most distinguishing mercies, 
you may sell your birthright, like profane Esau, for 
a mess of pottage — but for your apostacy receive 
the wages of eternal death. And when you see 
your minister, your parents, your Christian friends, 
who have prayed for you, and who have labored 
with you, that you might be saved, standing at the 
right hand of the everlasting throne, and you your- 
selves among the lost, how will all your privileges 
and opportunities neglected and despised harrow up 
your souls. And when, in the endless ages which 
succeed, you reflect upon times like this when God 
did beseech you by us to be reconciled to him ; 
when we prayed you in Christ's stead to be recon- 
ciled to God and ye would not — how will a guilty 
conscience, the worm that never dies, gnaw your 
souls with the anguish of eternal remorse. Be up 
and doing while it is called to-day, before the night 
come wherein no man can work. Cry mightily to 
God for that grace of the Spirit of which he has 



6o 



SERMONS. 



given you the seal, that you may cordially embrace 
his covenant mercy. By all that regard for the 
glory of his name and the welfare of your immortal 
nature, in soul and body, by which God urges you 
to give yourself to him in an everlasting covenant, 
do you urge him to give to you that grace of the 
Spirit whereby alone you can yield yourself to God 
a free-will offering, a living sacrifice for time and for 
eternity. He has said : " I will pour my spirit upon 
thy seed, and my blessing on thine offspring." 
" Hath he said it and will he not do it ; hath he 
spoken it and will he not bring it to pass." Listen 
to his gracious expostulations. " Remember now 
thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil 
days come not, nor the years draw nigh when ye 
shall say, We have no pleasure in them." " Wilt 
thou not at this time cry unto me, My father, thou 
art the guide of my youth." " Rejoice, O young 
man, in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in 
the days 6f thy youth, and walk in the way of thine 
heart and in the sight of thine eyes ; — but know that 
for all these things God will bring thee into judg- 
ment." " Let all, whether baptized or not, accept 
of God's covenant as all their salvation and all 
their desire." " Incline your ear and come unto 
me, hear and your souls shall live, and I will make 
an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure 
mercies of David." 

" Repent and be baptized, every one of you, for 
the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of 



BAPTISM. 



61 



the Holy Ghost. For the promise is to you and to 
your children, and to all that are afar off, even as 
many as the Lord our God shall call." And let all 
personally unite in the prayer of the Psalmist : 
" Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy 
glory unto thy children. And let the beauty of the 
Lord our God be upon us, and establish thou the 
work of our hands upon us. Yea, the work of our 
hands establish thou it." 



SERMONS ON TEMPERANCE. 



I. 



" The fruit of the Spirit is. . . temperance." — Gal. v., 22, 23. 
T THEN, from any exciting causes, a subject of 



VV importance has been discussed with such vari- 
ety of opinions that it has well-nigh become " puz- 
zled out of all intelligibility," it appears necessary 
to bring it to the test of the first principles of truth. 
This I apprehend to be the case with the subject of 
temperance. As one " set for the defence of the 
gospel," whose official duty it is to " contend earn- 
estly for the faith once delivered for the saints," I in- 
tend, with His permission, and in dependence on 
His aid, to give what I believe to be the mind of 
the Spirit on the point in question. In a pro- 
fessedly Christian community the appeal is " to the 
law and to the testimony ; if they speak not accord- 
ing to this word, it is because there is no light in 
them." It cannot be conceded for one moment 
that any question of moral obligation may be decided 
independently of " the only infallible rule of faith 
and of practice, the Bible, from which nothing is to 
be taken, and to which nothing is to be added, at 
any time or under any pretense, whether of new 
revelations of the Spirit,or traditions of men." The 




66 



SERMON'S. 



Word of God is the only system of morals which 
answers the purpose of a rule of life, for it alone 
comes to us having the sanction of supreme author- 
ity — brings the realities of the eternal world to bear 
upon the regulation of our conduct in this, and is 
attended with that almighty influence which it is 
competent only to its Author to exert, and by which 
the nature and life of man may be molded into 
conformity to the Divine will — " We all with open 
face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, 
are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, 
even as by the Spirit of the Lord." 

It is one of the prolific causes, and one of the 
most conclusive symptoms of heresy, to form opin- 
ions on duty independently of the holy oracles ; and 
then, instead of allowing these opinions to be 
molded or set aside by the sure testimony of God, 
to use every effort to force that testimony into a 
seeming consistency with these previous decisions. 
But " we have a more sure word of prophecy, to 
which ye do well that ye take heed, as to a light 
shining in a dark place, until the day dawn and the 
day-star arise in your hearts." 

I shall first direct your attention to what the holy 
Scriptures teach on the subject of temperance, and 
enforce the duty ; and secondly, examine the claim 
of the novel doctrine of total abstinence to be the 
Christian grace and duty of temperance. 

First, in considering what the Spirit saith unto 
the churches on this subject, I ask your attention 



TEMPERANCE. 



6? 



to the import of the duty of temperance, and to the 
divinely appointed means of its promotion. 

In inquiring into the meaning of a record, we must 
ascertain the usage of its terms. The word rendered 
44 temperance " occurs four times, the adjective " tem- 
perate " once, and the corresponding verb rendered 
once, " contain," and another time, "be temperate," 
twice. 

The term temperance occurs, Acts xxiv., 25 : "And 
as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and 
judgment to come, Felix trembled." The word here 
signifies continence or chastity. Felix had com- 
mitted adultery with Drusilla by marrying her before 
the death of her former husband, and it is not im- 
probable that he was also guilty of drunkenness, for 
he is charged in general with all sorts of crimes. 
Again, it is found in the text, where it closes the 
list of the fruits of the Spirit, and is opposed to 
drunkenness and other excesses in the previous con- 
text. And again, it is used twice in 2 Pet. i., 5, 6. 
" Add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, 
and to knowledge temperance^ and to temperance 
patience." Here also it forms one of the distinctive 
graces of Christian character. 

The adjective temperate is used in the same sense, 
Titus i., 7, 8 : " For a bishop must be blameless, as 
the steward of God ; not self-willed, not soon angry, 
not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy 
lucre ; but a lover to hospitality, a lover of good 
men, sober, just holy, temperate'* Here it is op- 



63 



SERMOiVS. 



posed not only to being given to wine, but to wil- 
fulness, passionateness, quarrelsomeness and avarice. 

The corresponding verb is rendered, I Cor. vii., 9, 
"contain," in reference to sin against the seventh 
commandment : M But if they cannot contain, let 
them marry." And again, ix., 25, it is rendered, " be 
temperate ": "And every man that striveth for the 
mastery is temperate in all things," compared with 
verse 27, " I keep under my body and bring it into 
subjection." 

Schleusner's definition of the original term for 
temperance is : " Temperance, abstinence, conti- 
nence, which is discerned not only in the power with 
which any one restrains himself from too much food 
and drink, but in the firm and moderate government 
of reason over lust and other improper propensities 
of the mind." 

As a fruit of the Spirit, and as a Christian duty 
it implies that special divine influence of the Holy 
Spirit, by which the new man in Christ Jesus is en- 
abled to govern himself according to the divine word 
in respect to all the propensities of his nature in the 
inward and outward man. It comprehends much 
more than mere freedom from drunkenness, which 
may be found when other sinful propensities are in- 
dulged to the greatest excess. It is opposed to the 
unlawful and excessive indulgence of any propensity, 
and it is associated with its only true and efficient 
cause, the Holy Spirit, in the regenerated heart 
" as a well of water, springing up unto eternal life." 



TEMPERANCE. 



69 



None, therefore, are truly temperate but true 
Christians ; for while some may be free from excess 
in one direction and some in another, some in the 
lusts that have their seat in the animal part of man, 
as gluttony, drunkenness, fornication, lasciviousness ; 
others in one or more of the lusts which have their 
seat in the mind or spiritual part of the man, such 
as envy, hatred, malice, idolatry, covetousness, none 
but the true children of God, by regeneration and 
adoption, and the indwelling of the Spirit of power 
and might, and of a sound mind, are preserved from 
ruinous excess in one or more of these ways. From 
this review of the words expressing temperance, in all 
the places wherein they occur in holy Scripture, it is 
manifest that their views are extremely limited and 
imperfect who confine this grace and duty to the 
mere freedom from drunkenness. Men may be i in- 
temperate to delirium ; they may be rabid from envy, 
and pride, and anger, and malice; they may be 
" mad upon their idols," while they suppose them- 
selves the exclusive friends of temperance, because 
they oppose drunkenness in a way of human inven- 
tion, they may be guilty of intemperance them- 
selves in ways more offensive to God, and more in- 
jurious to themselves and their neighbors, than 
drunkenness itself. If the poor inebriate has claims 
upon the compassion of his fellow-men, much more 
have they : or if rebuke befits them better, let them 
hear the voice that speaks to them from heaven : 
" Thou hypocrite, first pluck the beam out of thine 



73 



SERMONS. 



own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pluck 
the mote out of thy brother's eye." 

And yet drunkenness is a sin against the law of 
temperance often specifically and severely con- 
demned in holy writ, and which entails upon those 
who commit it many and grievous calamities. It 
was one of the sins of that abandoned son publicly 
stoned to death by the congregation, being con- 
demned on the testimony of his own parents : " This 
our son is stubborn and rebellious ; he will not 
obey our voice : he is a glutton and a drunkard" — 
Deut. xxi., 20. 

It forms part of the catalogue of sins which would 
bring down the judgments of God upon a guilty 
people : — " And it come to pass, when he heareth 
the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his 
heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in 
the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to 
thirst : the Lord will not spare him, but then the 
anger of the Lord, and his jealousy shall smoke 
against that man, and all the curses that are written 
in this book shall lie upon him, and the Lord shall 
blot out his name from under heaven." — Deut. 
xxix., 19, 20. 

Its ruinous consequences in this world are 
declared by the wise man : " Be not among wine- 
bibbers, among riotous eaters of flesh, for the 
drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty." — 
Prov. xxiii., 20-21. Isaiah denounces a " wo to them 
that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength 



TEMPERANCE. 



to drink strong drink." — Is. v., 22. And again, " Wo 
to the crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim. 
. . . The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, 
shall be trodden under foot." — Isaiah xxviii., 1,3. 

Joel exclaims, "Awake ye drunkards, and weep 
and howl all ye drinkers of wine, for it is cut off 
from your mouth." — Joel i., 5. 

Paul places it among the works of the flesh, which 
indicate the unsubdued dominion of sin, and the 
impending wrath of God : " Drunkenness, revelings, 
and such like ; of the which I tell you before, as I 
have also told you in times past, that they who do 
such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." 
Gal. iv., 21. " Nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor 
revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom 
of God." — 1 Cor. v., 10. He utters the divine pro- 
hibition, " Be not drunk with wine, wherein is 
excess, but be ye filled with the Spirit." — Eph. iv., 18. 
And interdicts friendly intercourse with a brother 
guilty of this sin : " But now I have written unto 
you not to keep company, if any man that is called 
a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, 
or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner ; with 
such a one no not to eat." — 1 Cor. v., 11. 

From these passages it appears that drunkenness 
is a very great sin, that it has prevailed in every age, 
bringing down the most solemn denunciations and 
the most awful judgments upon individuals and com- 
munities ; that it contemns the authority and defies 
the vengeance of God, throws man out of the pro- 



72 



SERMONS. 



tection of Omnipotence, and into the hands of 
Satan, and every ruinous lust ; that it destroys 
property, reputation, self-respect, health, domestic 
peace, and life itself ; that it proves unbridled 
corruption and depravity of heart ; that it excludes 
from the privileges of the visible church ; and that 
its fearful consequences run on through an eternity 
of unutterable anguish and despair, under the wrath 
and curse of a sin-avenging God. 

And have the wisdom and benevolence of God 
devised no remedies for this enormous evil? If 
they had not, vain, utterly vain, had been every help 
of man. 

Secondly. For this evil the great Physician of soul 
and body has appointed remedies both general and 
particular; those intended to promote the general 
health of the moral man, and those intended to act 
immediately upon this form of his disease. The 
means which promote the grace and duty of temper- 
ance in its most extended and scriptural significa- 
tion, eradicate drunkenness, one of its opposites. 

I. The general remedy for this, as well as every 
other moral malady, is the gospel and its ordinances, 
accompanied by the Holy Ghost sent down from 
heaven. 

" As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilder- 
ness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that 
whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but 
have eternal life." — John iii. 14, 15. " For after that, 
in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew 



TEMPERANCE. 



73 



not of God, it pleased God by the foolishness of 
preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews 
require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom; 
but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a 
stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness ; 
but unto them that are called, both Jews and Greeks, 
Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. 
Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men ; 
and the weakness of God is stronger than men." — 
I Cor. i., 21-25. The wise men of the world treated 
the gospel as foolishness and weakness, as they do 
now. Be it so, says the inspired man, " the foolish- 
ness of God is wiser than men, the weakness of God 
is stronger than men." On another occasion, he 
says, " My speech and my preaching was not with 
enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstra- 
tion of the Spirit and of power." — 1 Cor. ii., 4. And 
again, " For our gospel came not unto you in word 
only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and 
in much assurance." — 1 Thess. i., 5. To these 
causes the inspired apostle ascribes the thorough 
and radical reformation of drunkards as well 
as every other class of sinful men. " Know ye not 
that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom 
of God ? Be not deceived ; neither fornicators, nor 
idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers 
of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor 
covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortion- 
ers, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such 
were some of you : but ye are washed ; but ye are 



74 



SERMONS. 



sanctified ; but ye are justified in the name of the 
Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." — I Cor. 
vi., 9-1 1. The name, the influence of the Lord 
Jesus as the mediator of the new covenant, the 
ordinance of God for human salvation, the end of 
the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth, 
the Lord our righteousness made of God unto us 
wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemp- 
tion, procures by covenant stipulation every bless- 
ing that the sinner needs, that he may be righteous, 
holy, and happy forever. And these blessings pur- 
chased by the Lord Jesus are effectually applied by 
the Holy Spirit, when the gospel comes not in word 
only, but in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in 
much assurance. 

The same truth is taught by the same apostle in 
his epistle to the Galatians : " Now the works of 
the flesh are manifest, which are these : adultery, 
fornication, uncleanliness, lasciviousness, idolatry, 
witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, strife, wrath, 
seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness^ 
revelings, and such like ; of the which I tell you 
before, as I have also told you in times past, that 
they which do such things shall not inherit the 
kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, 
joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, 
faith, meekness, temperance; against such there is no 
law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the 
flesh with the affections and lusts."— Gal. v., 19-24. 
The abandonment of these hideous and disgusting 



TEMPERANCE. 



75 



vices, and becoming arrayed in the opposite and 
divinely beautiful graces, is the fruit of the Spirit, 
writing the truth of God upon the tables of the 
heart. This is the divine panacea for all the ills 
that flesh is heir to. And in every age, according 
to the degree in which it has been received, it has 
wrought its moral miracles, transforming brutes in 
character and conduct into men, and fiends to 
saints, making the wilderness like Eden, the desert 
like the garden of the Lord. 

Besides this general remedy, there are particular 
applications to this form of the disease. These are 
found in the solemn rebukes, admonitions, and 
warnings with which the Scriptures abound, as well 
as in the exercise of the authority and discipline 
which Christ hath established in his church, for edi- 
fication and not for destruction. In these the sense 
of duty, and fear and love of God, the grateful 
sense of the infinite love of Christ, and a due and 
solemn regard for the man's own interests, for the 
life that now is, and for that which is to come, unite 
in withholding him from the commission of this 
great evil and sin against God. Particular direc- 
tions are also given to particular persons, putting 
them on their especial guard against dangers in this 
direction. The priests were forbidden to drink at 
all when ministering in holy things. "And the 
Lord spake unto Aaron, saying, Do not drink wine 
or strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, when 
ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest 



7^ 



SERMONS. 



ye die: it shall be a statute forever throughout your 
generations; and that ye may put difference be- 
tween holy and unholy, and between unclean and 
clean : and that ye may teach the children of Israel 
all the statutes which the Lord hath spoken unto 
them by the hand of Moses." — Lev. x., 8— 1 1. The 
same prohibition is repeated by Ezekiel in describ- 
ing the future temple and its services: "Neither 
shall any priest drink wine when they enter into the 
inner court." — Ezek. xliv., 21. An especial caution 
is given also to kings on this subject : " It is not 
for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink 
wine, nor for princes strong drink ; lest they drink 
and forget the law, and pervert the judgment of 
any of the afflicted." Proverbs xxxi., 4. 

A general warning is given against tampering 
with temptation. "Who hath wo? who hath sor- 
row ? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? 
who hath wounds without cause ? who hath redness 
of eyes ? They that tarry long at the wine, they 
that go to seek mixed wine. Look not thou upon 
the wine when it is red, when it giveth his color in 
the cup, when it moveth itself aright : at the last it 
biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder." — 
Prov. xxiii., 29-32. And a fearful wo is denounced 
against him who acts the part of a tempter to this 
sin : " Wo unto him that giveth his neighbor drink, 
that putteth thy bottle to him, and makest him 
drunken also, that thou mayest look on their naked- 
ness." — Hab. ii., 15. 



TEMPERANCE. 



77 



Our Lord solemnly warns his disciples and the 
men of that day : " Take heed to yourselves, lest 
at any time your heart be overcharged with surfeit- 
ing, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so 
that day come upon you unawares." — Luke xxi., 34. 
And the apostle Paul exhorts the Christians at 
Rome : " Let us walk honestly, as in the day, not in 
rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and 
wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye 
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision 
for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof." — Rom. xiii., 
13, 14. And he directs to withdraw from friendly 
intercourse with a professor guilty of this sin : 
" But now I have written unto you, not to keep 
company, if any man that is called a brother, be a. 
fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reveller, 
or a drunkard, or an extortioner, with such a one 
no not to eat." — 1 Cor. v., 11. And the awful decla- 
ration sounds continually in his ears : " Drunkards 
shall not inherit the kingdom of God." 

The prohibition of drunkenness to one who has- 
becomeyso enslaved to that vice that he is incapa- 
ble of making any distinction between the use and 
abuse of alcoholic drinks, includes total abstinence, 
for as to drink at all with him is to be drunk, the 
prohibition of the latter includes the prohibition of 
the former. He has rendered himself incapable of 
using the privilege, and therefore it is a privilege to 
him no longer, while the prohibition against drunk- 
enness remains against him in all its force. Total 



73 



SERMONS. 



abstinence also from distilled spirits as a beverage, 
.according to the first pledge of the temperance so- 
ciety, appears allowable on the ground that the testi- 
mony of those most competent to judge in the case 
has decided that distilled liquors are always injurious 
to persons in health. If this statement be correct, 
the sixth commandment requires men to abstain : 
" Thou shalt not kill." Thus far almost all friends 
of temperance arc agreed. For these reasons, and 
in this way, should drunkenness be opposed and 
counteracted, as utterly ruinous to all the interests 
of man, and to the law and honor of God. By the 
faithful preaching of the gospel of Christ, accom- 
panied by the fervent, importunate, and believing 
prayers of the ministry and of the church for a 
Divine blessing upon it, by instruction on the sinful- 
ness as well as the ruinous consequences of this 
vile lust, by warning, by counsel, and faithful and 
friendly admonition, by watching against tempta- 
tions to sin in ourselves and others, and by the 
faithful administration of the discipline of God's 
house on members who dishonor their profession 
by this sin, all true Christians should unitedly seek 
the removal of drunkenness from the earth. 

Are there any here who have fallen under the 
power of this vile lust ? Let me entreat you, my 
friends, let me warn you, to turn from your evil 
ways, or your iniquity will be your ruin. Flee to 
the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope. Exchange the 
pleasures of the brute for those of the saints. "Be 



TEMPERANCE. 



79 



not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be ye 
filled with the Spirit." Consider the fearful evils 
which follow in the train of this sin, and the irrevo- 
cable decision of the Judge and King eternal, 
" Drunkards shall not inherit the kingdom of God." 
" Be not deceived, God is not mocked ; for what- 
soever a man soweth, that shall he also reap ; for he 
that soweth to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap cor- 
ruption, while he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the 
Spirit reap life everlasting." Let us all cultivate ac- 
quaintance with divine truth, rely on the grace of the 
Holy Spirit, and in dependence on his aid, labor con- 
tinually and in all things to observe the rule of the 
divine word in discharging our duties — to ourselves, 
in living soberly — to our neighbors, in doing justly 
and loving mercy — and to God, by living Godly in 
Christ Jesus, and walking humbly with our God. 

The truth as it is in Jesus, is the life of all good 
works, and the only teaching which the Spirit of 
holiness will attend. Let us rely upon the aid of 
the Holy Spirit, whereby we may mortify the flesh 
with the affections and lusts, that he may work in 
us all appropriate fruits, love, joy, peace, long- 
suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, 
temperance. No power but his can effectually pre- 
vent man from seeking his sordid gratifications in 
the things of earth, and even in the maddening 
bowl, because none but he can impart those nobler 
and purer delights in the favor, and fellowship, and 
image of a reconciled God, where we may buy wine 



80 



SERMONS. 



and milk, without money and without price, and 
draw water with joy out of the wells of salvation. 
He is the Spirit of faith, the Author of that spiritual 
sight by which the invisible, eternal world is made 
to pass before us in its transcendent beauty and 
value, before which earthly glories fade, and earthly 
joys are insipid, and sin appears exceeding sinful. 
" This is the victory that overcometh the world, 
even our faith." Instead of boasting of the wisdom 
of our schemes and the omnipotence of our resolves, 
let us look to the Spirit of wisdom and of power, 
and of a sound mind, that we may be instructed 
aright, and lean upon his almighty arm, and yield 
ourselves to his transforming influence, and feel 
upon us the hand of his omnipotence, and recog- 
nize his presence as the seal and earnest of perfect 
holiness, and perfect, eternal joy in his presence, 
where is fullness of joy, and at his right hand, where 
are pleasures for evermore. 

With the Bible for our guide, and the Spirit for 
our strength, let us wait upon God, in the name of 
Jesus, the surety and advocate of all that come unto 
God by him, in the use of all his ordinances of 
grace, that we may, by beholding in this mirror his 
glory, be changed into the same image, from glory 
to glory, accounting all his commandments concern- 
ing all things to be right, and hating every false 
way. " For the grace of God, that bringeth salva- 
tion, hath appeared unto all men, teaching us that 
denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should 



TEMPERANCE. 



81 



live soberly, and righteously, and godly, in this pres- 
ent world, looking for the blessed hope and the 
glorious appearing of the great God, and our Sav- 
iour Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he 
might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify us 
unto himself, a peculiar people, zealous of good 
works." But ye beloved, building up yourselves in 
your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, 
keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the 
mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life." 
" And of some have compassion, making a difference, 
and others save with fear, pulling them out of the 
fire, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh." 

" Now unto Him that is able to keep you from fall- 
ing, and to present you faultless before the pres- 
ence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only 
wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, domin- 
ion and power, both now and ever." Amen. 



II. 



" The fruit of the Spirit is . . . temperance." — Gal. v., 22, 23. 

HAVING on the last Sabbath evening considered 
the duty of temperance, and the means of its 
promotion, I proceed to direct your attention to 
the claim of the novel doctrine of total abstinence 
to be regarded as the duty of temperance enjoined 
in the Holy Scriptures. In the outset of this dis- 
cussion, I would remind you of the solemn charge, 
under which, as a minister of the gospel, I am called 
to act. " Son of man, I have made thee a watchman 
unto the house of Israel, therefore hear the word at 
my mouth, and give them warning from me." — 
Ezek. iii., 17. " If the watchman see the sword 
come and blow not the trumpet, and the people be 
not warned, if the sword come and take any per- 
son from among them, he is taken away in his 
iniquity, but his blood will I require at the watch- 
man's hand." — Ezek. xxxiii., 6. 

When heresies which threaten the very founda- 
tions of the Christian religion invade the church, it 
is the duty of the ministry to sound the alarm. 
Such I apprehend to be the case in relation to the 
question of total abstinence, and hence the part 
which I have acted from the first time that it showed 

82 



TEMPERANCE. 



83 



its face among us. After various ineffectual at- 
tempts, it has rallied its forces, and succored by 
some extraordinary auxiliaries, it has evinced a deep 
determination to take this citadel of truth by storm. 
" But when the enemy cometh in like a flood, the 
Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against 
him." 

Who then is this uncircumcised Philistine, that 
defies the armies of the living God ? He assumes 
the name of temperance, and under the sanction of 
that venerable name, demands the implicit subjec- 
tion of every soul, on peril of ceaseless denunciation 
and the bitter and envenomed persecution of evil 
tongues and evil pens ; and nothing but his impo- 
tence prevents him from wielding, to the extermina- 
tion of all opposers, the censures of the church, and 
the power of the civil magistrate. In default of 
these, he has established a government of his own, 
appointed his officers, marshaled his forces, and en- 
tered upon the work of subjecting the world to his 
sway. He is described, by his last grand council, 
called the " Third National Temperance Conven- 
tion," which met at Saratoga Springs on the 28th, 
29th, and 30th days of July, 1 841, as to his nature and 
his claims, in the section on " Moral Obligation." 

" Resolved, That the tendency of all intoxicating 
drinks to derange the bodily functions, to lead to 
drunkenness, to harden the heart, sear the con- 
science, destroy domestic peace, excite to the com- 
mission of crime, waste human life, and destroy 



84 



SERMONS. 



souls, and the rebukes and warnings of God in his 
word in relation to them, in connection with every 
law of self-preservation and of love, impose upon 
all men a solemn moral obligation to cease forever 
from their manufacture, sale, and use, as a beverage, 
and do unitedly call upon us, as men and as Chris- 
tians, not to pause in our work until such manufac- 
ture, sale, and use shall be universally abandoned." 

Here, then, by the highest authority known to 
the cause, it is declared to be the solemn moral 
obligation of all men to cease, forever, from the 
manufacture, sale, and use of all intoxicating drinks 
as a beverage. It is well that the question is thus 
placed in a form so clear and tangible. 

This is substantially the ground of all those who 
urge entire abstinence as a duty, in order to the cure 
of intemperance. And those who take the ground 
of expediency arrive at the same result after taking 
one step farther round. If the thing be a duty, on 
the ground of expediency, it is a sin not to perform 
that duty, and consequently all who do not practice 
this abstinence, including the Saviour himself, are 
sinners. 

The Executive Committee of the Newburgh Total 
Abstinence Society, in an official document pre- 
sented to the public, have said : 

"Total abstinence from all that can intoxicate, is 
the stand taken by the association, and which is 
believed, as past experience has amply proven, to 
be the only safe ground and effectual, under God, 



TEMPERANCE. 



85 



that can be taken for the promotion of temperance." 
New. Tel., July 22, 1841. 

Consequently, those who do not adopt this stand 
reject the only safe and efficient means of promoting 
temperance, and are, therefore, aiding and abetting 
intemperance. 

As very much depends, in regard to the settle- 
ment of any question, on having it clearly stated, 
I would state, and briefly illustrate, what I conceive 
to be the point in dispute. The ground assumed 
by total abstinence societies is unscriptural and im- 
moral, not simply because they abstain, but because 
they abstain under the plea of a moral obligation 
growing out of a moral law, which binds men uni- 
versally and always. A man may lawfully abstain, 
either because his system is in such a state, through 
former habits of intoxication, that he can not use 
these things without abusing them, or because he 
can not conveniently obtain them, or because he has 
no inclination for them. But, if he abstain because 
he regards the use of them, either per se or per 
accidens, either in themselves or in their accompani- 
ments, involving immorality, he brings a charge 
against the wisdom and benevolence of God, who 
has ordained and approved their use, and therefore 
contemns God. 

This may be illustrated by a parallel case. God 
gave to our race, in Noah, the use of animal food. 
" Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for 
you, even as the green herb have I given you all 



86 



SERMONS. 



things." — Gen. ix., 3. Now, persons in a fever ought 
not to eat it ; and millions of our race can not obtain 
it ; but those who shall say that it is universally 
improper to use it, with the Grahamites and the 
Encratites, or suppose there is peculiar holiness in 
not using it, with the Brahmins, nullify, as far as in 
them lies, a divine institution, and set themselves 
up as wiser and more benevolent than God. An- 
other illustration may be drawn from the institution 
of marriage. There have been individuals who, 
from various causes, were not under any obligation 
to marry ; but whoever should refrain on the ground 
that either in itself or in its tendencies it involved 
immorality, would thereby set himself against the 
Most High, " all whose works are truth and his ways 
judgment, and those that walk in pride he is able to 
abase." 

The question, then, is, as expressed by the Na- 
tional Temperance Convention, and more or less 
clearly by total abstinence societies and individu- 
als, "Are all men everyzvhere under solemn moral 
obligation to cease forever from the manufacture, sale, 
and use, as a beverage, of all intoxicating drinks?" 

They assert, and I deny. I am opposed to this 
doctrine, for the following reasons : 

1st. Because, so far from being the Christian 
grace of temperance, or any part of it, or of any 
other grace or duty of the followers of Jesus, it is 
a profane and presumptuous attempt to set aside 
an institution of God, the fruit of his wisdom and 



TEMPERANCE. 



87 



love. The same act cannot be at the same time a 
duty and a sin ; the one excludes the other. If it 
be a moral obligation to abstain, it is a sin to use. 
But the Most High God has furnished these very 
drinks for the use of man, and as an expression of 
his far-seeing wisdom, his paternal love. The in- 
spired psalmist refers to these very things, in cele- 
brating, in his loftiest strains, the glory of the Di- 
vine wisdom and benevolence : " He causeth the 
grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the ser- 
vice of man, that he may bring forth food out of the 
earth, and wine that maketh glad the heart of man, 
and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which 
strengthened! man's heart." — Psalm civ., 14, 15. 

Nothing is here said about diseases, or medicines, 
or religious rites. The whole theme is the common 
bounties of divine Providence, and the wine that 
maketh glad the heart is placed between the grass 
and the herb, and the oil and the bread. Nothing, 
therefore, can be plainer to any candid and unso- 
phisticated mind, than that the mind of the Na- 
tional Temperance Convention is at perfect antipo- 
des with the mind of the Spirit. He never could 
have celebrated, as a fruit of his glorious wisdom 
and love, what it were sin for his creatures to use, 
for the very purpose for which it was given. The 
obvious meaning of this passage is but the common 
voice of sacred Scripture : " Thou hast put gladness 
into my heart, more than in the time that their corn 
and their wine increased " (Psalm iv., 7) ; where 



88 



SERMONS. 



wine and corn, the representatives of earthly bless- 
ings, are less valued than the light of God's counte- 
nance. 

Again, the prophet Habakkuk, in declaring that 
when the streams of created enjoyment are dried up, 
God is alone a sufficient portion, reckons the fruit 
of the vine among the ordinary blessings of life. 
" Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither 
shall be fruit in the vines, the labor of the olive shall 
fail, and the fields shall yield no meat, the flock 
shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no 
herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I 
will joy in the God of my salvation." — Hab. iii., 17, 
18. Jotham, in his apologue, introduces the vine 
as saying, " Shall I leave my wine which cheereth 
God and man?" — Judges ix., 13. It pleaseth man 
in its ordinary use, and God is pleased with it when 
offered in thanksgiving sacrifices unto him, as ex- 
pressing the gratitude of his people for his gifts. 

The Levite says, " There is bread and wine for me 
and for thine handmaid and for the young man that 
is with thy servants." — Judges xix., 19. It was one 
of the common products of the land of promise, and 
formed part of the living of the people. " The floor 
and the press shall not feed them." — Hosea ix., 2. 
" Even all the Jews returned out of all places whither 
they were driven, and came to the land of Judah, to 
Gedaliah, unto Mizpah, and gathered wine and sum- 
mer fruits very much. — Jer. xl., 12. The Lord says 
of Israel by the prophet : " For she did not know 



TEMPERANCE. 



8 9 



that I gave her corn and wine and oil." — Hosea ii., 
8. The good Samaritan used for the wounds of the 
man that had fallen among thieves, the oil and wine 
which formed part of the provision for his own jour- 
ney. And Paul declares, in relation to this very 
subject : " Every creature of God is good, and noth- 
ing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiv- 
ing ; for it is sanctified by the word of God and 
prayer." — I Tim. iv., 4, 5. The word of God then 
having declared the use of these things to be good 
and right, it is profane and presumptuous in any 
body of men to declare them evil and wrong. 
" What God hath cleansed, that call not thou com- 
mon." — Acts x., 15. 

2d. Because, while the American Temperance 
Convention represents all intoxicating drinks, and 
wine amongst the rest, as so great evils that it is the 
solemn duty of all men forever to abstain from their 
use as a beverage, the spirit of prophecy, in describ- 
ing the future history of the chosen people, repre- 
sents the bestowing of wine in abundance as a sign 
of the Divine favor, and a prosperous state, but the 
withholding of it, of his displeasure, and a calami- 
tous state of national affairs. 

When the Patriarch Jacob in the spirit blessed his 
sons, he spake of Judah thus : " Binding his foal 
unto the vine, and his asses' colt unto the choice 
vine, he washed his garments in wine, and his 
clothes in the blood of grapes. His eyes shall be 
red with wine, and his teeth white with milk." — 



9 o 



SERMONS. 



Gen. xlix., n, 12. " For she did not know that I 
gave her corn and wine and oil, and multiplied her 
silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal ; there- 
fore will I return, and take away my corn in the 
time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and 
I will recover my wool and my flax, given her to 
cover her nakedness." — Hosea ii., 8, 9. Again, in 
predicting times of temporal and spiritual prosper- 
ity : " Therefore behold, I will allure her, and bring 
her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto 
her : and I will give her her vineyards from thence." 
— Hosea ii., 14, 15. "And the earth shall hear the 
corn, and the wine, and the oil, and they shall hear 
Jezreel." — ii., 22. Then follow these threatenings : 
" The floor and the wine-press shall not feed them, 
and the new wine shall fail in her. They shall not 
offer wine offerings unto the Lord, neither shall they 
be pleasing unto him." — ix., 2, 4. " Lament like a 
viigin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her 
youth. The meat offering and the drink offering is 
cut off from the house of the Lord. The priests, 
the Lord's ministers, mourn. The field is wasted ; 
the land mourneth ; for the corn is wasted, the new 
wine is dried up, the oil languisheth." — Joel i., 8, 9, 
IO. How different is his description of times of 
prosperity: " And it shall come to pass in that day 
that the mountains shall drop down new wine f and 
the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of 
Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall 
come forth out of the house of the Lord, and shall 



TEMPERANCE. 



91 



water the valley of Shittim." — iii., 18. Amos sings 
in similar strains the prosperity of the latter days : 
" Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that the 
plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader 
of grapes him that soweth seed, and the mountains 
shall drop down sweet wine, and all the hills shall 
melt. And I will bring again the captivity of my 
people Israel, and they shall build the waste cities 
and inhabit them, and they shall plant vineyards and. 
drink the wine thereof ; they shall also make gardens 
and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them 
upon their land which I have given them, and they 
shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I 
have given them, saith the Lord thy God." — Amos 
ix., 13, 15. 

Is it not a strange way of describing the great 
prosperity of a land by representing it as abound- 
ing in the production of that whose tendencies are 
every way evil to all the interests of man, and which 
it is the solemn moral duty of every man neither to 
make nor to use, in the principal way in which it 
must be used, if used at all, as a beverage ? It 
evinces a fearful hardihood in men professing to 
respect the Bible, thus openly to contradict the 
Holy Ghost. 

3. Because it represents one of the elements and 
materials in which God and his worshiping people 
have fellowship, and which he has commanded to 
be used to his honor, in the courts of his holiness, 
as full of all evil tendencies for soul and body, for 



9 2 



SERMONS. 



time and eternity. Wine was a part of the offerings 
to God as an acknowledgment of his goodness in 
giving the fruits of the ground for the good of man. 

" And the fourth part of a hin of wine for a drink 
offering shalt thou prepare with the burnt-offering 
or sacrifice for one lamb." — Num. xv., 5. " And for 
a drink-offering thou shalt offer the third part of a 
hin of wine for a sweet savor unto the Lord." — 7. 
Being devoted to God, it was a part of the perqui- 
sites of the priests. " All the best of the oil and 
all the best of the wine and of the wheat, the first 
fruits of them, which they shall offer unto the Lord : 
them have I given thee." — Num. xviii., 12. " The 
Lord hath sworn by his right hand, and by the arm 
of his strength, Surely I will no more give thy corn 
to be meat for thine enemies, and the sons of the 
strangers shall not drink thy wine for the which thou 
hast labored ; but they that have gathered it shall 
eat it and praise the Lord, and they that have 
brought it together shall drink it in the courts of 
my holiness." — Isaiah lxii., 8, 9. Our Lord Jesus 
has continued its use under the New Testament to 
the end of time. " And he gave thanks and gave it 
to them, saying, Drink ye all of it, for this is my 
blood of the New Testament, which is shed for 
the remission of sins. But I say unto you that I 
will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, 
until I drink it new with you in my Father's king- 
dom." — Matt, xxvi., 27, 29. Now I say it is worse 
than absurd, to assert that an element so full of 



TEMPERANCE. 



93 



deadly evil should have been appointed by that 
Saviour whose every institution and every action 
did but body forth the great principle of love, to 
be the emblem of his blood, by which our souls 
live unto God forever. How monstrous the incon- 
gruity ! While the bread which nourishes the body 
by a beautiful analogy illustrates the benefits we 
receive from the broken body of Him who is the 
bread of eternal life, the other element represented 
by this dogma as the very concentration of all evil 
has more analogy to everything in the universe 
than to that precious blood of Christ, by which 
our souls are ransomed from eternal woes. The 
inevitable consequence of this doctrine, if gener- 
ally adopted, will be to nullify the ordinance of the 
Lord's Supper, by removing one of the divinely ap- 
pointed signs — the cup — the wine. This tendency 
is seen already, and some congregations have actu- 
ally banished the wine from this memorial of the 
Saviour's death. The history of this heresy will 
show that one of these errors involves the other, 
and that those who begin by denouncing wine as a 
beverage, finish their work by banishing it from the 
table of the Lord. 

4. Because this dogma is the identical heresy of 
Ebeon Marcion, the Encratites and Aquarians of 
the second, third, and fifth centuries. It is a her- 
esy which, after rotting in its grave for fourteen 
hundred years, it is now attempted to raise from the 
dead and palm upon the Christian church as the 



94 



SERMONS. 



grace of temperance. If this be temperance, the 
church of God has never known what temperance 
is. In the days of inspiration it was not so much 
as mentioned, save in describing by the spirit of 
prophecy the apostacy of the latter days ; and when 
offered in after-times to the church, with one voice 
it was rejected by all but heretics, who were never 
regarded as any part of the true Christian church. 
And to this day not a denomination on earth has 
adopted it. A few congregations have, but they 
are no more the church than a noisy political cabal 
of discontented and disorderly men is the state. 
By the united voice, then, of the whole church of 
God in the days of inspiration, and ever since, this 
doctrine of the self-styled American Temperance 
Convention is a vile and pernicious heresy. Its 
origin is base and its company is evil. In Bingham's 
"Antiquities of the Christian Church," book 15, 
chap. 2, sect. 7, its origin is given : " The other part 
of the sacrament was always wine, and that taken also 
out of the oblations of the people. Some of the 
ancient heretics, under pretence of abstinence and 
temperance, changed this element into water, and 
consecrated in water only. These were some of 
them disciples of Ebeon, and some of them the fol- 
lowers of Tatian commonly called Hydroperastatse 
and Aquarii, from the use of water, and sometimes 
Encratitae, from their abstaining wholly from flesh 
and wine. And this seems to have been the ground 
of their errors, that they thought it universally un- 



TEMPERANCE. 



95 



lawful to eat flesh or to drink wine. Under this 
character they are frequently condemned by Epipha- 
nius, who terms them Encratites [Epiph. Haer. 46, 
Encratit. Haer. 30, Ebeonite, n. 16] and by St. 
Augustine, under the name of Aquarians [Aug. de 
Haeres, cap. 64], and by Theodoret, who says 
they sprang from Tatian, and were called Hydro- 
perastatae, because they offered water instead of 
wine, and Encratitae, because they wholly ab- 
stained from wine and living creatures. [Theod. 
de Fabulis Haeret. lib. 1, cap 20.] St. Chry- 
sostom calls it the pernicious heresy of those 
that used only water in their mysteries, whereas 
our Lord instituted them in wine, and drank wine 
at his common table after the resurrection, to pre- 
vent the budding of this wicked heresy [p. 165, 166.] 
Eusebius, quoting Irenaeus, says: " Those that 
sprung from Saturninus and Marcion, called the 
Encratites, proclaimed abstinence from marriage, 
setting aside the original design of God and tacitly 
censuring him that made male and female for the 
propagation of the human race." They also intro- 
duced the abstinence from things called "animate, 
with them, displaying ingratitude to God who made 
all things." Buck, in his Theological Dictionary, 
vol. I, p. 142, describes the Encratites as 4< a sect in 
the second century, who abstained from marriage, 
wine, and animals." Marcionites, vol 2. p. 38: 
" Marcionites, or Marcionists, Marcionistae, a very 
ancient and popular sect of heretics, who, in the 



9 6 



SERMONS. 



time of Epiphanius, were spread over Italy, Egypt, 
Palestine, Syria, Arabia, Persia and other countries. 
They were thus denominated from their author 
Marcion. 

He laid down two principles, the one good, the 
other evil ; between these, he imagined an inter- 
mediate kind of Deity, of a mixed nature, who was 
the creator of this inferior world, and the God and 
legislator of the Jewish nation. The other nations, 
who worshiped a variety of gods, were supposed 
to be under the empire of the evil principle. These 
two conflicting powers exercise oppressions upon 
rational and immortal souls ; and therefore the 
Supreme God, to deliver them from bondage, sent 
to the Jews a being more like unto himself, even his 
Son, Jesus Christ, clothed with a certain shadowy 
resemblance of a body ; this celestial messenger was 
attacked by the prince of darkness, and by the God 
of the Jews, but without effect. Those who follow 
the directions of this celestial conductor mortify the 
body by fastings and austerities, and renounce the 
precepts of the God of the Jews, and of the prince 
of darkness ; and after death ascend to the man- 
sions of felicity and perfection." 

The rule of manners which Marcion prescribed to 
his followers was excessively austere, containing an 
express prohibition of zucdlock, wine, flesh, and all the 
external comforts of life. 

" Marcion denied the real birth, incarnation, and 
passion of Jesus Christ, and held them to be apparent 



TEMPERANCE. 



97 



only. He denied the resurrection of the body, and 
allowed none to be baptized but those who preserved 
their continence ; but these he granted to be bap- 
tized three times. In many things he followed the 
sentiments of the heretic Cerdon, and rejected the 
law and the prophets. He pretended the gos- 
pel had been corrupted by false prophets, and 
allowed none of the evangelists but St. Luke, whom 
also he altered in many places, as well as the epistles 
of St Paul, a great many things in which he threw 
out. In his own copy of St. Luke, he threw out the 
first two chapters entire." — Buck's Theological 
Dictionary. 

Tatian, one of their founders, according to 
Milnor, Ch. Hist., vol. I, p. 213, "deserved the name 
of heretic. He dealt largely in the merits of con- 
tinence and charity ; and these virtues, pushed into 
extravagant excesses, under the notion of superior 
purity, became great engines of self-righteousness 
and superstition, obscured men's views of the faith 
of Christ, and darkened the whole face of Christian- 
ity. Under the fostering hand of Ammonius and 
his followers, this fictitious holiness, disguised under 
the appearance of eminent sanctity, was formed into 
a system, and it soon began to generate the worst 
of evils." 

The verdict of the whole church of God during 
and since the days of inspiration is, that this doc- 
trine of the immorality of using wine as a beverage 
is a heresy, the daughter of superstition and self- 



9 8 



SERMONS. 



righteousness, the twin sister of total abstinence 
from marriage and animal food, and the parent of 
total abstinence from wine at Lord's Supper,* and 
of soul-destroying darkness and delusion, which 
obscitred the whole face of Christianity, and " gener- 
ated the worst of evils." 

5. Because the doctrine of the convention is one 
of the distinguishing tenets of the false prophet of 



* The following advertisement from the New York Observer 
is an alarming proof of the tendency of this doctrine. It ex- 
hibits some of its most distinguished advocates openly engaged 
with all the influence which their connection with this question 
can give them, in corrupting one of the most solemn ordinances 
of our holy religion in removing the wine from the Supper of 
the Lord and substituting a matter of human invention in its 
place : 

" Unfermented Wine. — D. Pomeroy, Jr., No. 47 Water 
St., offers for sale a superior article of Unfermented Juice of the 
Grape. It is in the form of a syrup, and so concentrated as to 
avoid fermentation. It retains much, if not all, the flavor of the 
grape, and is decidedly better than any article which has 
hitherto been offered. Directions for diluting it accompany 
each bottle. For the convenience of those churches and indi- 
viduals who may wish to order it by letter, and enclose the 
money, it will be put up in different sized bottles, and packed 
in cases, which may be had at five, ten, and twenty dollars 
each ; and can be safely transported to any part of the country. 
All such orders, post paid, will be promptly attended to. 
New York, July 21, 1841. 

" The following testimonials have been furnished by the Rev. 
Mr. Marsh and Edward C. Delavan, Esq : 

" I have paid some attention to the unfermented juice of the 



TEMPERANCE. 



99 



Mecca, one of the points of difference between the 
Koran and the Bible, between Mahomet and Christ 
Jesus the Lord. We have seen how utterly irrecon- 
cilable the dogma of the convention is with the 
doctrine of the Bible of the Christian. There is no 
such discrepancy between it and the teaching of the 
Alcoran, the Bible of the Mussulman. Hearken to 
its voice. Thus it speaks: " They will ask thee con- 
cerning wine and lots. Answer, in both there is 



grape, which Mr. Pomeroy offers to the churches for commun- 
ion wine. It certainly is a beautiful and delicious article, and 
evidently free from that maddening quality which, in fermented 
wines, is so destructive to the souls and bodies of men. If it 
can be generally introduced into the churches, so that the peo- 
ple of God shall no longer in this holy ordinance contribute to the 
support of alcoholic manufacturers, a great and important ad- 
vance will be made in the cause of temperance ; an advance now 
loudly called for by the reform of more than ten thousand 
drunkards, many of whom we hope to see at the table of Christ, 
and none of whom can with safety take into their lips the in- 
toxicating principle. 

'"John Marsh, Sec. Am. Temp. Union.' 

" ' Ballston Centre, July 29, 1841. 

" ' I most cheerfully add my testimony to that of Mr. Marsh. 
The sample of the ' Fruit of the Vine,' free from the poison of 
alcohol, which you have been so kind as to send me, is not only 
beautiful but delicious. And I pray God that the Christians of 
our land, and of other lands, may, with a united voice, demand 
the ' Fruit of the Vine,' free from fermentation, in place of the 
alcohol and drugged poisons, which have so long held their 
station on the table of the Lord. Edward C. Delavan. 

"'New York, July 21, 1841.' " 



IOO 



SERMONS. 



great sin, and also some things of use unto men, but 
their sinfulness is greater than their use." — Sale's 
Koran, chap. 2, p. 39. Hear it again, as the pre- 
tended inspirationbecomes more distinct and decided: 
" O true believers, surely wine, and lots, and ima- 
ges, and divining arrows are an abomination, and 
of the work of Satan, therefore avoid them that ye 
may prosper ; Satan seeketh to sow dissension and 
hatred among you by means of wine and lots, and 
to divert you from remembering God, and from 
prayer. Will you not, therefore, abstain from 
them ? " — chap. 5, p. 149. From what follows, it ap- 
pears that this prohibition had not been binding 
even in the view of Mahomet, until now that it is 
made — " In those that believe and do good works, 
it is no sin that they have tasted wine or gaming 
before they were forbidden." — Ibid. Sale, the learned 
translator of the Koran, says : " The drinking of 
wine, under which name all sorts of strong and ine- 
briating liquors are comprehended, is forbidden in 
the Koran in more places than one. Some indeed 
have imagined that excess therein is only forbidden, 
and that the moderate use of wine is allowed by two 
passages in the same book. But the more received 
opinion is, that to drink any strong liquors, either 
in a lesser quantity or in a greater, is absolutely un- 
lawful ; and though libertines indulge themselves in 
the contrary practices, the more conscientious are so 
strong, especially if they have performed the pil- 
grimage to Mecca, that they hold it unlawful not 



TEMPERANCE. 



101 



only to taste wine, but to press grapes for the making 
of it, to buy or to sell it, or even to maintain them- 
selves with the money arising by the sale of that 
liquor." Here, then we have the doctrine of total 
abstinence contained in a book claiming to be a reve- 
lation from heaven, and enforced by a spiritual and 
political despotism second to none on the earth, 
and that doctrine resting upon the same kind of 
reasons of those given by the American Temperance 
Convention at Saratoga. How little such legislation 
can do to promote morality is seen on a large scale 
in the history of the Turks, the greatest sensualists 
on earth, and stupid and dazed with the intoxicating 
fumes of opium, and even of wine and brandy. The 
author just mentioned goes on to state what proves 
that it is an acknowledged point of difference be- 
tween Mahometanism and Christianity, and that it 
has utterly failed of producing the effects which it 
promises. " The Persians, however, as well as the 
Turks, are very fond of wine : and if one asks them 
how it comes to pass that they venture to drink it, 
when it is so directly forbidden by their religion, 
they answer that it is with them as with Christians, 
whose religion prohibits drunkenness and whore- 
dom as great sins, and who glory notwithstanding, 
some in debauching girls and married women, and 
others in drinking to excess." — Sale's Koran, vol. i., 
p. 163. 

Here, then, is a point of difference between the 
Koran and the Bible ; the Convention declares in the 



102 



SERMONS. 



face of the world that the Koran is, in this respect, 
better than the Bible. 

And has it come to this, that in this professedly- 
Christian community it is necessary to argue the 
question, which you should prefer — the Koran or 
the Bible, — the Arabian impostor, or the Lord Jesus 
Christ? Oh, my Lord Jesus! what wilt thou do 
for thy great name when thy rival is preferred before 
thee, when his institutions are applauded for their be- 
nevolence, and wisdom, and efficiency, and thine are 
charged with all manner of evil ? Who is on the 
Lord's side? Who? 

6. I am opposed to that position which is taken 
by the Convention, because it brings a criminal 
charge against all men who use now, or ever have 
used, wine as a beverage. If its tendencies are so 
evil as to involve a moral obligation entirely to 
abstain from its manufacture, sale, or use, as a bev- 
erage ; then, as these tendencies have always existed, 
the moral obligation has existed also, and those who 
have not complied with this obligation have sinned. 
Who are these sinners? 

Melchisedek, the most illustrious type of the Great 
High Priest of our profession, and Abraham the fa- 
ther of the faithful. "And Melchisedek king of 
Salem brought forth bread and wine ; and he was 
the priest of the Most High God. And he blessed 
him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high 
God, possessor of heaven and earth." Gen. xiv., 
18, 19. As no mention is made of sacrifices, the 



TEMPERANCE. 1 03 



wine was used in the manner common to that coun- 
try, together with the bread, for the refreshment of 
Abraham and his men after their toilsome march. 
What a disgraceful scene is here enacted by the 
royal priest and the illustrious patriarch, the only 
time they are ever said to have met on earth, if total 
abstinence be law. But one syllable of rebuke for 
their sin, the Bible nowhere contains. The tribe 
of Judah and the wine with which their portion 
was blessed. David receives a present of wine 
among other provisions from Abigail ; and when he 
brought the Ark to the place which he had pre- 
pared for it, he dealt among all the people, "even 
among the whole multitude of Israel, as well to 
the women as men, to every one a cake of bread, 
and a good piece of flesh, and a flagon of wine." 
2 Sam. vi., 19. 

Daniel used wine ; for, in stating how he mourned 
three full weeks, he says, " I ate no pleasant 
bread, neither came flesh nor wine in my mouth ; 
neither did I anoint myself at all ; till three whole, 
weeks were fulfilled." Daniel, x., 2, 3. If he had not 
used wine at all, it had been improper to state his 
abstinence from it for three weeks, as a sign of his 
mourning. The doctrine of total abstinence would 
charge upon three eminent and holy men, that they 
were friends to intemperance, whereas the uniform 
language of holy Scripture, as has been shown, 
proves that they acted, in this respect, in perfect 
consistency with all their obligations to God and 



io4 



SERMONS. 



to man. But to charge sin, where it is not, is cal- 
umny. 

7. This wonderful discovery, which is thought by 
its advocates to throw into the shade, nay, to reduce 
to very nothingness all that had been known or done 
before, is described by the pen of inspiration as part 
of the portraiture of the grand apostacy. " Now, 
the spirit speaketh expressly that, in the latter times, 
some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to se- 
ducing spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies 
in hypocrisy, having their consciences seared as with 
a hot iron, forbiddi?ig to marry, and com?nanding tc 
abstain from meats which God hath created to be re- 
ceived with thanksgiving of them which believe and 
kfiow the truth, for it is sanctified by the Word of 
God and prayer." — 1 Tim. iv., I, 5. To say that it 
is the duty of every one to abstain is, to the extent 
of their authority, to command to abstain. Now, 
total abstinence societies, with the Convention at 
their head, do this, and enforce the mandate by 
every influence which they can bring to bear upon 
the subject. And every one who refuses implicit 
subjection, may lay his account with every possible 
annoyance and vexation, with being held up to 
public odium in public addresses, and by newspaper 
writers as destitute of common honesty, and an 
enemy to the morals and welfare of the community. 
And, if they had the power, their whole history 
shows that not Rome herself would rule with greater 
rigor. Wine, one of the proscribed drinks, is reck- 



TEMPERANCE. 105 



oned in Sacred Writ among meats as part of the 
sustenance of the people. " The floor and the 
wine-press shall not feed them." — Hosea ix., 2. This 
temperance movement, as it is improperly called, 
identifies, in itself, one of the features of the grand 
apostacy. If it be a sin for popery to forbid mar- 
riage to the priests, and meat on Friday, it is a sin in 
total abstinence societies to forbid wine, as a bever- 
age, totally and forever. It is an impious invasion of 
the prerogative of Zion's King, to whom alone it 
belongs to give laws to the human conscience, to 
presume to forbid what he allows. The spirit of 
prophecy has impressed upon it the indelible brand 
of his reprobation as apostacy from God. Every 
departure from the faith is apostacy from the truth 
and ways of God. All who submit their consciences 
to the dictation of self-constituted moral governors 
depart both from the truth and from the authorized 
teaching of the church of God. If this doctrine be 
not a novelty, I ask, when was it ever acknowledged 
as a law in the Christian church ? Never! And they 
who do not stand fast in the liberty wherewith 
Christ hath made them free, by a vow either of per- 
petual celibacy or of entire abstinence from drinks 
that if taken to excess would intoxicate, do throw 
off the authority of Christ, and bow their necks to 
the yoke of another. They renounce in this respect 
the authority which Christ has given to the church, 
and submit to the usurped authority of rebellious 
man. 



Either total abstinence men. or those who refuse 
the vow. have departed from the faith on the point. 
/ say they who vow have departed, and the time can 
easily be told, for a very few years ago the thing 
was utterly unknown. But if they say we have 
departed, I ask when did we depart ? It has been 
shown that we occupy the very ground which the 
whole church has occupied, in her w hole history, 
from the beginning to this hour. We have not, then, 
departed ; we stand where we always did, and where 
all the prophets and apostles stood, and where also 
stood, in the days of his flesh, the Lord God of the 
Holy Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ, the same 
vest era ay. to-aay. ana forever. 

The Convention, therefore, and those who act 
with them, have, in this respect, identified them- 
selves with the grand apostacy of the latter days, 
the anti-Christ who shall think to change times and 
laws. — Dan. vii., 25. The}' have entangled themselves 
in the web of their own sophistries, they have 
entered upon the down-hill course of departure from 
the truth, the ordinances, and the authority of the 
church, and no creature can tell where they will stop. 
But in my Master's name I warn them not to be 
partakers of the sins of the Grand Apostate, lest 
they share with her in her plagues. 

8. I am opposed to the doctrine of the Conven- 
tion, because it turns the most delightful invitations 
of the glorious gospel into a derision of human woes. 
"Ana in this mountain shall the Lord cf Hosts 



TEMPERA NCE. 



107 



make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of 
wine on the lees ; of fat things full of marrow, of wines 
on the lees well refined." — Isa. xxv., 6. " Ho, every- 
one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters ; and he 
that hath no money, come ye, buy wine and milk 
without money and without price." — Isaiah, lv., I. 
" lam come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: 
I have gathered my myrrh with my spice, I have 
eaten my honeycomb with my honey ; I have drunk 
my wine with my milk: eat, O friends; drink, yea, 
drink abundantly, O beloved." — Song of Solomon, 
v., 1. But what is this wine? The figure, the illus- 
tration by analogy of what is offered to saints and 
sinners. If we believe the Convention, it is a sub- 
stance whose tendencies, physical and moral, are 
so extremely pernicious as to make it the solemn 
duty of every man forever to abstain from its use as 
a drink. They offer, then, to men in want of every 
good, and enduring all evil, as a remedy, that which 
itself is the source of almost every evil, for time and 
for eternity. When men ask for bread, they give 
them a stone: when they ask for fish, they give 
them a serpent. If any of those who adopt these 
views should preach from these texts, they must 
tell their hearers that they are under a solemn 
moral obligation not to taste the remedy they offer, 
or if they do it will but add fuel to the fire. 

How large a part of the Bible must be banished 
from its pages to make it accord with the splendid 
discoveries of the nineteenth century ! 



SERMONS. 



9. I am opposed to the doctrine of the American 
Temperance Convention, because it is a deceiver and 
impostor. It claims to be the Christian grace of 
temperance ; whereas, it has been proved to be a 
heresy — a Mahometan and Popish delusion. The 
temperance of the Bible is a Christian grace wrought 
in the heart by the Holy Spirit ; whereas, this pre- 
tender numbers among his converts thousands, who 
have no experience of the spiritual, regenerating 
grace of the Holy Spirit ; and many of them, as all 
the Unitarians, deny that, as a Divine Person in the 
Godhead, there is any Holy Spirit. 

According to the Bible, our Lord Jesus was a per- 
fectly temperate man in the spirit and tendencies of 
his actions, as well as in their form. He was holy, 
harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners ; but 
according to this doctrine he was not fully temper- 
ate, for he drank wine, and furnished it for the use 
of others. Total abstinence is not synonymous with 
the duty of temperance, either according to the 
Bible or any other book of established authority. 
And as the man, who in civil society assumes the 
jiame of another for the purpose of appropriating to 
himself the advantages connected with that name, 
is justly abhorred as an impostor and deceiver, so 
that doctrine which, being something entirely differ- 
ent, and even a distinctive tenet of both the eastern 
and western Antichrist, claims to be a Christian 
grace, deserves to be treated as a deceiver and im- 
postor, and the more decidedly and firmly as the 



TEMPERANCE. 



interests endangered are nothing less than the whole 
religion of Christ. 

10. The last objection I have to this doctrine, 
though not the least, is that it is implicit blasphemy 
against the Son of God. 

If, as the Convention assert, the tendency of all 
intoxicating drinks, of which wine is one, is so ex- 
ceedingly bad as to involve a solemn moral obliga- 
tion in all men to abstain entirely and forever from 
their use as a beverage, then those who do not com- 
ply with this obligation commit sin. But to charge 
sin upon a divine person is blasphemy. Now our 
Lord Jesus Christ did use wine himself as a bever- 
age, and furnished it as a beverage for the use of 
others. " For John the Baptist came neither eating 
bread nor drinking wine y and ye say he hath a devil. 
The Son of Man is come eating and drinking, and 
ye say, behold a man gluttonous and a wine-bibber, 
a friend of publicans and sinners." — Luke vii., 33. 
From the antithesis between John and his Master, it 
evident that what John did not, Jesus did, eat and 
drink ; but John did not eat bread nor drink wine, 
therefore Jesus did eat bread and drink wine. 
Again : at the marriage in Cana of Galilee, the 
Lord Jesus made wine for the use of others, and to 
be used neither as a medicine, nor for sacramental 
purposes, but as a beverage. " Jesus saith unto 
them, fill the water-pots with water, and they filled 
them up to the brim. And he saith unto them, 
draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the 



no 



SERMON'S. 



feast. And they bare it. When the ruler of the 
feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and 
knew not whence it was (but the servants which 
drew the water knew), the governor of the feast 
called the bridegroom, and saith unto him, Every- 
man at the beginning doth set forth good wine, and 
when men have well drunk, then that which is 
worse; but thou hast kept the good wine until 
now." — John ii., 7-10. Here Jesus makes wine at 
a marriage, and directs it when made to be drawn 
out for use,— and wine which was accounted of the 
very best kind. " No man having drunk old wine, 
straightway desireth new, for he saith the old is 
better." — Luke v., 39. There is no demonstration 
in Euclid more certain than the conclusion from 
these passages, that the Lord Jesus did drink wine, 
and made it for others to drink at a marriage, as a 
beverage ; nor any corollary in it, than this — that if 
the Word be God, they who make it a sin to drink 
wine, and to furnish it to others to drink, blaspheme 
the Son of God. 

We have seen, then, that this doctrine of total 
abstinence, as a moral obligation resulting from the 
tendencies of wine, is in total opposition to the rep- 
resentations of the Spirit of Truth, as given in 
inspired song, in history, in prophetic oracles, in 
solemn and significant religious ordinances, sacri- 
fices, and the Lord's Supper ; that it is identical 
with a long since exploded and pernicious heresy ; 
that in point of distinction between the religion of 



TEMPERANCE. 



in 



the Lord Jesus Christ and that of Mahomet, it gives 
its strong and decided preference for the false 
prophet of Mecca ; that it calumniates the holiest 
men that have ever lived, as Melchisedek, and 
Abraham, and David, and Daniel, and the church of 
God in general in the days of inspiration, and since ; 
that it is a limb of Antichrist — a feature of the pre- 
dicted apostacy of the latter days; that it turns into 
a working of human woe the most delightful invi- 
tations and promises of the glorious gospel ; that 
coming under the assumed name of Temperance, it 
is a deceiver; and that by obvious and necessary 
implication it blasphemes the Son of God. It is, 
therefore, no part of the grace of temperance, or of 
any other grace, but a deceiver and an Antichrist. 

Any one of these positions, which have been es- 
tablished by abundant evidence, if there be any 
proper reverence for the authority of Holy Writ, 
would be perfectly sufficient for the exploding of so 
manifest and gross a heresy ; but all of them taken 
together afford such a body of evidence, that if they 
are not sufficient to prove the schism of total absti- 
nence as a matter of moral obligation to be unscrip- 
tural and anti-Christian, I defy any man to prove any- 
thing out of the Word of God. And I charge every 
person in this assembly, on the authority of the God 
of the Bible, to look at this subject as the Scriptures 
speak of it — to believe, and feel, and act, according 
to their teachings, and not according to the tradi- 
tions of men who are turned from the truth, and are 



\ 

112 



SERMONS. 



turned aside unto fables. " O, send out thy light 
and thy truth ; let them lead me ; let them bring 
me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles ; then 
will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my ex- 
ceeding joy." 



v 



III. 

"The fruit of the Spirit is . . . temperance." — Gal. v., 22, 23. 

THE conclusion to which we are brought by the 
preceding argument is rather confirmed than 
impaired by the attempts that are made to escape 
from it. If words are to be understood in the sense 
which uniform scriptural usage has affixed to them ; 
if a question, once settled by numerous decisions of 
infallible authority, upon the very point, is not to be 
disturbed by general expressions in immediate con- 
nection with other points ; and if the word of God, 
contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New 
Testaments, is the perfect as well as infallible rule 
of faith and of practice, — then the position taken by 
the American Temperance Convention can not be 
defended in any consistency with due respect for the 
oracles of God. " Let God be true but every man 
a liar ; as it is written, that thou mightest be justi- 
fied in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when 
thou art judged." The first attempt to escape from 
this conclusion is to invent a distinction between 
wine that would intoxicate, and that which would 
not. This key is thought by some to unlock every 
difficulty. When wine was mentioned in connection 
with intoxication, and as its cause, then intoxicating 

113 



ii4 



SERMONS. 



fermented, or alcoholic wine was meant ; but when 
its use was mentioned with approbation, then un- 
fermented wine was meant. As to the former class, 
there can be no dispute. " And Noah began to be 
a husbandman and he planted a vineyard ; and he 
drank of the wine and was drunken." — Gen. ix., 20, 
21. " Therefore, Eli thought she had been drunken. 
And Eli said unto her, How long wilt thou be 
drunken ? put away thy wine from thee." If there 
be anything in this distinction, words expressing 
such essential difference must not be used indiscrimi- 
nately. The word which expresses the wine which 
intoxicates must not be used to denote that which 
may be used with Divine approbation. Let us see. 
In Ps. civ., 15, the " wine which maketh glad his 
(man's) heart," is celebrated as an expression of the 
Divine beneficence. So, also, Isaiah lv., 1 : " Buy 
wine and milk without money, and without price." 
What is the difference in the terms ? there is none 
in the translation. Is there any in the original? 
None at all. The very same word, J**, is used in all 
these cases. If names, then, are the representatives 
of things, the very same thing which is intoxicating 
is used as a beverage with Divine approbation. ' This 
distinction, therefore, which the distressed advocates 
of the heresy of the Encratians have invented, is 
contradicted by the Divine testimony. No such dis- 
tinction exists in the Bible. The translators of the 
Bible were sciolists, and they have used the common 
term, wine, for all the various terms used in the origi- 



TEMPERANCE. 



nal, sometimes prefixing the terms new, sweet, and 
mixed, etc. Every one of these terms expresses that 
which is intoxicating, and which is yet used with Di- 
vine approbation. " And I will feed them that op- 
press thee with their own flesh ; and they shall be 
drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine," 
D 1 oy, — Isaiah xlix., 26. And this wine is spoken of 
with rapture by the prophet, when predicting its abun- 
dance in the promised land : " The mountains shall 
drop down sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt." — 
Amos ix., 13. Again : " Awake, ye drunkards, and 
weep ; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of 
the new wine ; for it is cut off from your mouth." — 
Joel i., 5. And the abundance of this same wine is 
predicted as a great national blessing. " And it shall 
come to pass in that day that the mountains shall 
drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with 
milk." — iii., 18. They translate the same term in 
Hebrew sweet wine and new wine indifferently, and 
while they describe it, as the original Scriptures do, 
as intoxicating, they also describe it as a blessing, 
when bestowed upon the people in abundance. The 
same term, #vn, they render wine and new wine ; 
and it is at onetime represented as a blessing of Di- 
vine Providence, when given in abundance. There- 
fore prays the patriarch Isaac in behalf of his favorite 
son : " God give thee of the dew of heaven, and of 
the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and 
wine." — Gen. xxvii., 28. " With corn and wine have 
I sustained him." — ver. 37. " So shall thy barns 



n6 



SERMONS. 



be filled with plenty, and thy presses burst out with 
new wine." — Prov. iii., 10. At another time it de- 
scribes a liquor which will intoxicate. " Wine and 
new wine take away the heart." — Hosea iv., 1 1. 
Me$vv/ia — Sept.; ebrietas — Vulg. "The new wine 
mourneth, the vine languished; all the merry-hearted 
do sigh." — Isaiah xxiv., 7. " And shalt tread sweet 
wine, but shalt not drink wine," — Micah, vi., 15. 
"The fountain of Jacob shall be upon aland of corn 
and wine." — Deut. xxxiii., 28. "In the holy place 
shalt thou cause the strong wine, "OS?, to be poured 
out." — Numbers xxviii., 7. In ver. xiv., thef" is 
used for the same sacred purpose. And that it is 
intoxicating is evident, since it is said of it, " Wine 
is a mocker, strong drink is raging." — Prov., xx., 1, 
31-36. — " Do not drink wine, V\ nor strong drink, 
thou nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the 
tabernacle of the congregation." 

Mixed wine 2DE> is used as an illustration of the 
blessings of the everlasting Gospel. " Wisdom hath 
builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pil- 
lars: she hath killed her beasts; she hath mingled her 
wine ; she hath also furnished her table. She hath 
sent forth her maidens : she crieth upon the highest 
places of the city. Whoso is simple, let him turn 
in hither: as for him that wanteth understanding, 
she saith to him, Come, eat of my bread, and drink of 
the wine which I have mingled. Forsake the foolish 
and live : and go in the way of understanding." — 
Prov. ix., 1-6. It is of the same signification with 



TEMPERANCE. 



117 



npin V spiced wine. " I would cause thee to drink 
of spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate "; 
(Song of Sol. viii., 2) " and mixed liquor," vii., 3. This 
wine mixed with spices is also intoxicating. " Wo 
unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men 
of strength to mingle strong drink." — Isaiah v., 22. 
" Who hath wo ? etc., they that go to seek mixed 
wine" 1DDD. — Prov. xxiii., 30. " Thy silver is be- 
come dross, thy wine mixed with water." 
Isa. i., 22. Here it is used in a good sense. Ac- 
cording to the Hebrew parallelism the same general 
calamity is expressed by the silver becoming dross 
and the wine being mixed with water. And yet this 
invaluable blessing, when used to excess, gives name 
to the drunkard. "Be not among wine-bibbers; 
among riotous eaters of flesh : for the drunkard and 
the glutton shall come to poverty." — Prov. xxiii., 20, 
21. The pure blood of the grape is celebrated as 
one of the bounties of Divine Providence. " Butter 
of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and 
rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the 
fat of the kidneys of wheat ; and thou didst drink 
the .pure blood of the grape," ion (so-called from 
being fermented. Gesenius.) — Deut. xxxii., 14. 
The same word is used in the Chaldean form, for the 
wine which intoxicated Belshazzar on the night on 
which he was slain. " Belshazzar the king made a 
great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank 
wine before the thousand." — Dan. y, 1,2, 4, 23, also 
in Ezra vi., 9. " In the hands of the Lord there is 



n8 



SERMONS. 



a cup, and the wine is red ; it is full of mixture, 
and he poureth out of the same • but the dregs 
thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them 
out, and drink them." — Ps. lxxv., 8. The medicated 
cup given to criminals was mixed with stupefying 
drugs. "And the principal word indeed in Arabic 
for wine, khama, is derived from the word khamar, 
which means to ferment." — Smith's Letters. 

Having examined all the passages in which wine 
is referred to or mentioned in the Hebrew and 
Chaldaic Scriptures, I have found every one of the 
terms used to express it denotes a blessing of 
Divine Providence, like corn and oil, and that it will 
intoxicate, if taken to excess, The distinction, 
therefore, between fermented and unfermented 
wines is not only without, but against, all the evi- 
dence in the case. There is a term, fiB^fiPK, 2 
Sam. vi., 19, rendered a flagon of wine, and a 
phrase, D^iy flagons of wine, in Hosea 

iii., I ; Isa. xvi., 7 ; and again in Cant, ii., 4, 5, where 
it is used in a good sense: " He brought me to the 
banqueting house, and his banner over me was 
love." " Stay me with flagons." In Hosea iii., 1, 
" the children of Israel who look to other gods, and 
love flagons of wine," it describes the licentions 
indulgence in intemperance and other excesses prac- 
ticed in the worship of idols. If now we go to the 
New Testament, a similar examination will furnish 
a similar result. 

" Neither do men put new wine, oivov vedv, into 



TEMPERANCE. 



119 



old bottles, else the bottles break and the wine run- 
neth out, and the bottles perish ; but they put new 
wine into new bottles, and both are preserved." — 
Matt, ix., 17. The new skin bottles expand with the 
the increased volume of the fermenting liquor. 
" Others mocking, said, these men are full of new 
wine, yXevuovZ, sweet wine." — Acts ii., 13. This also 
would intoxicate, for Peter in his defense says : 
" These men are not drunk, as ye suppose." — Ver. 
15. " The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of 
God," tov Ksxepacjuivov aupdrov, the wine mixed 
with stupefying drugs and unmixed with water. — 
Rev. xiv., 10. This corresponds with Psalm lxxv., 8. 

The common term for wine is ozVoV, and has the 
same signification, and almost the same sound, in 
Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and English, the spelling in 
our own language being more like the Hebrew than 
any of the others, if pronounced without the points, 
iin, p\ " Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess." 
Eph. v., 18. 

That it signifies an intoxicating liquor in the case 
of our Lord is evident from the charge which his 
enemies brought against him, because he was not 
like John in his habits, a Nazarite. " The Son of 
Man came eating and drinking, and they said, 
Behold a man gluttonous, and a wine-bibber." 
Luke vii., 34. If the wine which he drank was not 
intoxicating, there had been no more pretense for 
the charge of drunkenness against him, than against 
John. Wicked men are artful enough to frame 



120 



SERMONS. 



their charges so as that they may have some little 
semblance of foundation in truth, if possible. Who 
ever was charged with drunkenness because he 
drank syrup and water? And again, at the mar- 
riage in Cana, the wine which he made was evi- 
dently intoxicating ; for he said himself, " No man 
also having drunk old wine straightway desireth 
new ; for he saith, The old is better." — Luke v., 39. 
But the new wine itself was fermented, much more 
the old. If that wine was the best, it was of the 
character of the old, but the old was most perfect- 
ly and fully fermented ; therefore that miraculous 
wine was intoxicating. " Every man at the begin- 
ning doth set forth good wine, and when men have 
well drunk, then that which is worse ; but thou hast 
kept the good wine until now." — John ii., 10. 

As the Scriptures know nothing of this distinc- 
tion between fermented and unfermented wines, so 
the church in after-times were in every age equally 
ignorant of it. Neither the ancient heretics, the 
Encratites, nor the orthodox, had ever dreamed of 
it. It is utterly incredible that if it had been 
known, the heretics would not have used the unfer- 
mented wine rather than water. And to this day 
the distinction is utterly unknown in the region of 
the revelation, the land of Syria. Hear the Rev. 
Eli Smith, of the Syrian Mission, in a letter to a 
correspondent, or editor of the Princeton Review, 
dated Kinderhook, Nov. 10, 1840: 

" The wines now in common use in Palestine, in 



TEMPERANCE. 



121 



Mount Lebanon, and in all the countries around the 
Mediterranean that I have been in, are fermented, 
and do produce intoxication." Again : " Nor do we 
make any exception of unfermented wines. I have 
never found any such wines now used in those coun- 
tries. I recollect, indeed, that in traveling through 
Asia Minor, I frequently quenched my thirst with 
an infusion of raisins. But it was never called 
sherab, the name given in Turkish to wine, but uzum 
suyu — raisin water. Even in the house of the chief 
rabbi of the Spanish Jews, at Hebron, I was once 
treated with fermented wine during the feast of 
unleavened bread." — Princeton Review for April, 
1841, p. 283-4. 

It is perfectly manifest, then, that this distinction 
between fermented and unfermented wines is a 
mere fiction, invented to save the advocates of total 
abstinence from the shame of an acknowledged 
defeat, or of infidel opposition to the plainest testi- 
monies of the Word of God. If it were ever proved 
that such a distinction did exist, and was embodied 
in distinct and well-defined terms (which we have 
seen it is not) still, while terms expressing intoxicat- 
ing wines are used times innumerable to express 
that which is used with approbation as an ordinary 
blessing of Divine Providence, the distinction would 
avail nothing, any more than it would prove at this 
day that a man might not lawfully use wine, because 
he might use syrup and water. 

After all the instances of drunkenness by wine, 



122 



SERMONS. 



and the rebukes for it, with which the Scriptures 
abound, the position taken by some of this party, 
that the wines of the ancients were not fermented, 
is so grossly absurd, that it is almost inconceivable 
that men in the possession of their reason ever 
could have thought of palming it upon the public. 
If their wine was not fermented, how did they get 
drunk ? If any proof were needed that many of the 
advocates of this heresy are under a strange delu- 
sion, it is furnished in the fact that they can gravely, 
and without a blush, venture upon positions like 
these.* 

* The scie?itific meaning of the word wine is the same with 
the popular. Nicholson's British Encyclopedia thus defines — 
Article " Wine." " All wines contain an acid, alcohol, tartar, ex- 
tract aroma, and a coloring matter." On the article of Fer- 
mentation, it teaches : " The word fermentation, in general, is 
used to denote that change in the principles of organic bodies 
which begins to take place spontaneously as soon as their vital 
functions have ceased, and, by them, are at length reduced to 
their first principles. This has been distinguished into three 
stages, the vinous or spirituous, the acid or acetous, and the 
putrid fermentation. It is ascertained, almost beyond doubt, 
that the vinous fermentation takes place only in such bodies as 
contain saccharine juices. In this, the most remarkable pro- 
duct is a volatile, colorless, slightly inflammable fluid, which 
mixes with water in all proportions, and is called alcohol. 
The three conditions for the accomplishment of fermentation are, 
therefore, fluidity or moisture, moderate heat or a due temper- 
ature, and the access of air." From these statements it appears 
that fermentation commences spontaneously, as soon as the 
juice is expressed, and exposed to the air, in a moderate tem- 
perature, and, therefore, that unfermented wine is a nonentity. 



TEMPERANCE. 



123 



2. The strength of the conclusion that the posi- 
tion of the American Temperance Convention is un- 
scriptural, being increased, instead of weakened or 
set aside by the distinction invented for the pur- 
pose of escaping from it, let us consider the propri- 
ety of unsettling that conclusion, at which we have 
arrived from numerous decisions of infallible author- 
ity, upon the very point, by general expressions in 
relation to other points. If this be allowable, then 
different parts of the same book authorize contra- 
dictory conclusions on the same point. But this is 
at once to destroy the whole authority of the Bible, 
as a rule of faith and practice. To believe or obey 
both sides of a contradiction is impossible. We 
have seen that no ingenuity of the total abstinence 
men can reconcile their scheme with the decisions 
to which I have appealed. Let us inquire whether 
these decisions can not be reconciled with the pas- 
sages adduced on the other side. 

I. The butler's dream is referred to: "And 
Pharaoh's cup was in my hand : and I took the 
grapes, and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup, and I 
gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand." — Gen. xl., 1 1. 
But this was a dream, in which things are repre- 
sented out of their ordinary course ; the vine buds, 
and blossoms, and brings forth grapes, all in one 
night. If you infer from this dream that vegetation 
is so rapid in Egypt, then you may infer that 
Pharaoh drank nothing but the juice of grapes, the 
moment they were expressed in his sight ; and if he 



124 



SE&AfOWS. 



did, it is not called wine, nor does it touch the ques- 
tion whether wine might lawfully be used as a 
beverage. How does it follow, because Pharaoh 
used grape juice, no flesh may use wine? 

2. The case of the Nazarite is quoted. And what 
has their case to do with the question, whether all 
men are under solemn moral obligation to abstain, as 
a beverage, forever from all that can intoxicate ? No 
person was under any moral obligation to become a 
Nazarite, either from the law of temperance, or any 
other general moral law ; and when the vow was 
taken, it was for a limited time, after which " the 
Nazarite may drink wine." — Num. vi., 20. His obli- 
gations were purely ceremonial, otherwise they had 
bound him while he lived. If one part of his vow 
is binding as an example, so are the others, and 
every man must not only abstain from wine, but also 
from grapes, moist or dried. He must not cut his 
hair, nor come at a dead body, even of his nearest 
friends. This law has been obsolete for about eigh- 
teen hundred years. The last of the Nazarites was 
John the Baptist, who was made such by a special 
law in his case, before he was born ; and, as if to show 
in clearest possible manner the absurdity of making 
the law of the Nazarite moral, universal, and per- 
petual, John's Lord and Master, whose shoe-latchet 
he was not worthy to unloose, was contrasted with 
him on this very subject, and what John by the law 
of the Nazarite does not, Jesus does : " For John 
the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking 



TEMPERANCE. 



wine, and ye say that he hath a devil. The Son of 
Man is come eating and drinking, and ye say, Be- 
hold a man gluttonous and a wine-bibber, a friend of 
publicans and sinners." — Luke vii., 33, 34. 

How, then, a law, which was purely optional, cere- 
monial, and particular, which has long ago expired 
by its own limitation, can be any warrant for a law 
of solemn moral obligation on all men, everywhere 
and forever, is more than I am able to comprehend. 

The truth is, this very law proves the very doc- 
trine it is supposed to subvert, as every express 
exception under a general law establishes the law 
itself, assuming the facts of its obligation and gen- 
eral application. As soon as the period of the 
Nazarite's special vow has expired, he returns to his 
former state, the common condition and duties of 
the community, and he may, in perfect keeping with 
all his duties to God and man — he may drink wine. 
What he may now do, all the community may do; 
with perfect propriety and untarnished honor. 
But if it be their duty to abstain, as total abstinence 
men insist, some for one reason and some for another, 
then they are at liberty to use it no longer. The 
liberty to use, and the duty to abstain, are incom- 
patible with each other ; we must choose between 
them. 

3. The case of the Rechabites (Jer. 35) is appealed 
to as authority for the doctrine of total abstinence, 
inasmuch as their conduct is approved. It is freely 
admitted that they did right in obeying Jonadab, 



126 



SERMONS. 



their father, for special and political considerations, 
not only in abstaining from wine, but also from 
building houses and sowing seed, and from possess- 
ing vineyards, houses, or fields. But if any one 
should produce this case to prove that the business 
of the house-carpenter and of the farmer ought to 
be abstained from, totally, and forever, he would 
be laughed to scorn by the whole world. But the 
case proves the propriety of abstaining from those 
as well as from wine ; there was the same reason for 
these as for this, and neither of them had anything 
to do with the general duty, either of the Jewish 
nation, or any other people on earth. It is a mere 
quibble to say that they were tested only in the 
case of the wine. It was the case most capable of 
being made a test, at once convenient and conclu- 
sive. Moreover, this very case disproves the very 
doctrine it is adduced to sustain. That doctrine is 
not that men may abstain for proper considerations, 
which no man on earth has ever dreamed of deny- 
ing, but that it is their duty under the operation of 
a general law, such as that of temperance or love, to 
abstain forever from all intoxicating drinks as a 
beverage. This position takes these things out of 
the condition of matters of liberty, or things indif- 
ferent altogether. The question, the practical and 
exciting question before this community, is not 
whether we may abstain, but whether we must. If, 
then, Jeremiah, or the Spirit of the Lord who 
directed him, had been of the same mind, in relation 



TEMPERANCE. 



127 



to the use of wine as a beverage, as total abstinence 
men are now, what an unaccountable omission was 
it, when so fair an opportunity was given, that the 
prophet did not exhort the whole people of Israel 
to follow the example of the Rechabites, and pour 
their wine into the streets and turn in their cattle 
upon their vineyards. What is the rebuke pointed 
by the case of the Rechabites? "The words of 
Jonadab the son of Rechab, that he commanded his 
sons not to drink wine, are performed ; for unto this 
day they drink none, but obey they father's com- 
mandment : notwithstanding I have spoken unto 
you, rising up early and speaking ; but ye hearkened 
not unto me. I have also sent unto you all my ser- 
vants the prophets, rising up early and sending 
them-, saying, Return ye now every man from his 
evil way, and amend your doings, and go not after 
other gods to serve them t and ye shall dwell in the 
land which I have given to you and to your fathers : 
but ye have not inclined your ear, nor hearkened 
unto me." — Jer. xxxv., 14, 15. The sin particularly 
charged is not drinking wine, but going' after other 
gods to serve them. False religion is the subject of 
the Divine rebuke, not the sober and thankful use of 
the products of his wisdom and love. 

4. Daniel has been quoted as an example of total 
abstinence : Dan. i., 8. " Daniel purposed in his 
heart that he would not defile himself with the por- 
tion of the king's meat, and of the wine which he 
drank." Ans. The word defile shows that Daniel's 



128 



SERMONS. 



objection was derived from the ceremonial law ; and 
his practice, chap, x., proves that he did use wine. 

5. As the Old Testament contains nothing to 
prove the doctrine of total abstinence, now sought 
to be established as part of the moral law, let us see 
if there be anything to favor it in the New Testa- 
ment. The case of John the Baptist (Luke vii., 33), 
who drank neither wine nor strong drink, is adduced, 
and his example is urged, because he was a very 
good man. But, according to this argument, it is 
more of a duty to break the law of total abstinence 
than to keep it; for John's Master was much better 
than he, and he drank wine himself, and furnished 
it for the use of others, at a marriage. The only 
total abstinence men mentioned in the Bible, Sam- 
son and John the Baptist, were made so, not by a 
voluntary pledge, but by special divine law, before 
they were born. Laws made for individual cases 
have no application beyond the particular cases 
themselves : nay, the very fact of such special laws 
proves indisputably that there was no general obli- 
gation resting upon the whole community. If there 
had been, such special law would have been super- 
fluous. There would have been the same reason for 
re-enacting in his case every other part of human 
duty. 

6. Timothy also is cited as a temperance man, in 
this modern and very improper sense of the term. 
" Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy 
stomach's sake, and thine often infirmities." — 1 



TEMPERANCE. 



129 



Tim. v., 23. From this passage it is argued that 
Timothy was a total abstinence man, or it would 
have been unnecessary for the apostle to urge him 
to use a little wine, even as a medicine. It certainly 
is very plainly implied that Timothy was injuring 
himself by too much abstinence. If he had used 
wine moderately as a beverage, he would have 
superseded the necessity of taking it as a medicine. 
Timothy was, in Paul's judgment, rather ultra in his 
abstinence. How does this prove that all ultra men 
are right ? Besides, there is not the slightest intima- 
tion that Timothy was actuated in his abstinence 
by any considerations of temperance, or the moral 
obligation of all men to abstain from wine as a 
beverage. 

We have not found the slightest trace of that doc- 
trine in the whole of our previous inquiries, and it 
is not at all necessary to assume it here without evi- 
dence. The fact of his abstinence is all that is 
stated. It is the motive which gives the act its 
moral character. Timothy might abstain, and ab- 
stain too much, from mere inattention to the state 
of his health, as some persons injure their health 
now, by living on a too meagre diet, when the state 
of their system requires more generous food. This 
argument from the case of Timothy is like all the 
rest on that side, a mere begging of the question. It 
is taken for granted, without proof, that Timothy 
was actuated in his abstinence by the same motives 
which actuate total abstinence men now. This is 



SERMONS. 



not in evidence, and it will not be conceded without 
evidence, and contrary to all the evidence in the 
Bible on the question. This case of Timothy proves 
that while many persons use too much wine, some 
persons use too little, and that is all that it proves. 

7. The last passage to which I shall refer, and 
on which the principal reliance is placed by these 
persons, is, " It is good neither to eat flesh nor to 
drink wine, nor anything whereby thy brother stum- 
bleth, or is offended, or is made weak." — Rom. xiv., 
21 ; together with this, " If meat make my brother 
to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world stand- 
eth, lest I make my brother to offend." — 1 Cor. viii., 
13. From these testimonies it is urged that the 
apostle lays down the general principle in morals, 
that if another person abuses his privileges we ought 
to abstain from using ours in order to his reforma- 
tion. 

To this argument I reply : 

1. Neither of these texts have any reference to 
the question of temperance. There is not in any 
of them the slightest allusion to that subject. The 
subject in Romans is the distinction of meats for- 
merly established by the ceremonial law, and that in 
Corinthians the propriety of using meats that had 
been offered in sacrifice to idols. Now as it would 
violate all the laws of interpretation and of evidence 
to interpret a general expression on one subject so 
as to contradict explicit and numerous decisions of 
the point in question by the highest authority on 



TEMPERANCE. 



another subject, such general expressions must 
always be limited by the subject and connection, as 
well as by other truths established by the same 
authority. 

2. If the apostle had entertained the same views 
of the impropriety of using wine as a beverage at 
all, as total abstinence men do, he would not have 
suspended the injunction to abstain upon mere con- 
tingencies which may happen to one man and not 
to another, and to the same person at one time and 
not at another. Instead of making the prohibition 
conditional, he would have made it absolute ; and 
the fact that he did not do so, demonstrates that the 
mind of the Spirit, whose amanuensis he was, dif- 
fered entirely from the mind of these men. 

3. If the cases involved in these passages are 
parallel with the present controversy, then the apos- 
tle has decided the question in favor of those who 
say it is right to use these things. He says : " I 
know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that 
there is nothing unclean of itself." — Rom. xiv., 14. 
And again : " As concerning therefore the eating of 
those things that are offered in sacrifice to idols, we 
know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that 
there is no God but one; for though there be that 
are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as 
there be gods many and lords many ;) but to us there 
is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, 
and we in Him : and one Lord Jesus Christ, by 
whom are all things, and we by Him. Howbeit 



13 2 SERMONS. 



there is not in every man that knowledge." — I Cor. 
viii., 4-7. He who eats has knowledge, he under- 
stands the case aright. He who refuses is a weak 
brother, laboring under an ill-informed conscience. 
" And through thy knowledge shall thy weak brother 
perish, for whom Christ died ? " He says again : 
" Let not your good be evil spoken of." — Rom. xiv., 
15. But if this good is never to be enjoyed without 
sin, wherein consists its goodness ? The duty of re- 
ceding from one's right out of regard to the good of 
others, can only be occasional and partial. A right 
which can never be used is a contradiction. 

4. The exposition of these men would require the 
apostle to abstain from wine both at the Lord's 
supper and as a medicine, contrary to his own de- 
cisions in those cases, inasmuch as some men in those 
days thought it wrong to use anything, whether 
flesh or wine, that had been offered in sacrifice to 
idols, or had been prohibited by the ceremonial law. 
For the same reason, as soon as the Encratites ap- 
peared, the whole church ought to have abandoned 
the wine in the Lord's supper, because the use of 
it stumbled these men. 

5. But why multiply words on this subject? 
Total abstinence men do not believe themselves. 
If, as they apply this passage, Paul enjoins us to use 
neither meat nor wine if a brother abuses them, then 
they ought never to touch meat, inasmuch as many 
persons injure themselves by their manner of using 
it. Indeed meat is the principal subject to which 



TEMPERANCE. 



133 



the remark of the apostle is applied. But who do 
this? Not even the Grahamites. They do it for 
their own good — the apostle enjoins it, according to 
this exposition, for the good of others. And those 
who have not yet gone the length of the abstaining 
from wine at the Lord's supper are inconsistent with 
themselves, for some of their WEAK brethren think 
it wrong to use it there. 

We have seen, then, that the passages of sacred 
Scripture which are referred to in support of the 
doctrine of the modern Encratites, instead of help- 
ing their causes, give additional testimony against 
them. 

Thirdly. They have yet one last resource, — the 
doctrine of expediency. To make room for this 
rule of faith, it is contended that our circumstances 
are different from those which existed in the days 
of inspiration. The Convention indeed found the 
obligation on the tendencies of the things which are 
the same in all ages. This plea of change of cir- 
cumstances is a giving up all the arguments from 
Scripture, Tor if these arguments were sufficient to 
sustain their cause, a change of circumstances would 
add nothing to its strength. It is thus virtually 
confessed that the decisions of Divine revelation are 
against them, that as there was no occasion for it in 
existing circumstances, this doctrine of theirs was 
not then taught ; and yet they adhere to their cause 
and endeavor to sustain it from sources indepen- 
dent of holy Scripture. But such an attempt is to 



134 



SERMONS. 



do open dishonor to the Word of God, as a perfect 
rule of faith and practice — it is to charge it with 
deficiency. Here, it is said a state of things exists 
for which the Bible has made no provision, nay, 
which requires that human wisdom should enact regu- 
lations which directly contradict those of the Word 
of God. If we may declare one part of the Bible 
obsolete to-day, we may declare another so to-mor- 
row, and so on, until it is entirely laid aside. The 
doctrine of expediency has its only legitimate use 
in carrying out, in the manner most consistent with 
the great principle of love, all Divine enactments and 
arrangements. True expediency is the servant, law 
is the master. No one would endure for a moment 
that a subject should trangress the laws of civil 
society, and introduce in their place his own inven- 
tions, on the plea that it was more expedient to 
break the laws than to keep them. Such expedi- 
ency is but another name for lawlessness. This is 
the expediency of thieves and robbers, who, rinding 
the law against their practices, decide it to be ex- 
pedient to break it. And if the laws of God are 
more perfect than those of civil society, those who, 
on the ground of expediency, make those laws void, 
commit a greater outrage, and deserve severe rebuke. 
For ignorant, sinful man, who is but of yesterday, 
and knows nothing, to exalt his wisdom above the 
wisdom of the Omniscient, and his benevolence 
above the benovelence of God — who is love ; and 
his devices above the institutions and appointments 



TEMPERANCE. 



135 



of the everlasting God, which are holy, and just, and 
good, is such excessive presumption, that it would 
be incredible that any human being could be guilty 
of it, if it were not proved by the history of every day, 
"Who art thou, O man, that repliest against God ? " 
" Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty in- 
struct him ? " " He that reproveth God, let him 
answer it." 

But what is the great change of circumstances 
which is to displace the Word of God from its 
throne in the human conscience, and set up the idol 
of expediency in its place ? 

It is said distilled spirits have been invented since 
the close of the inspired canon. If it be indeed true 
that they are always injurious to men in health, put 
them under the ban as a beverage. Whether wine 
is so or not, I shall not inquire at the bar of human 
wisdom. I know from much higher authority that 
such statements are false. For men to declare that 
to be poison having a tendency to derange the 
bodily functions as well as produce almost every 
moral evil, which the Lord of glory furnished mirac- 
ulously at a marriage, is such open and unblushing 
impiety as to demand the solemn rebuke of every 
Christian and every minister of Christ. 

Again it is said, that drunkenness is a much more 
prevalent sin now than in the days of inspiration. 
If this were admitted, what would it prove ? Be- 
cause a sin which existed in those days has increased, 
therefore the doctrines of God's Word are to be 



136 



SERMONS. 



contradicted, and his institutions give place to the 
inventions of man. For the same reason, if any- 
other sin has increased, we may set aside other dec- 
larations and arrangements, and thus dispense at 
will with the whole Word of God. What is this but 
to say that God's plans have been tried and failed ; 
man therefore must invent more safe and efficient 
means of promoting temperance, and every other 
grace and virtue — means, not which fall under the 
declarations and appointments of God, but which 
contradict and deride them ; not the prudential 
regulations of civil society or pious individuals — as- 
sociated efforts which carry out into practical ac- 
complishments the truth and commandments of 
God — but doctrines which contradict his testimony 
and make void his law. 

The difference, if any, between the drunkenness 
in the days of inspiration and now is only in degree. 
Whenever, then, this sin is brought down to the 
degree in which it obtained in those days, then new 
doctrines and new measures must give place to 
those of the Bible ; and thus, as times change, the 
declarations of God become true or false, his ap- 
pointments are in authority or disgrace. But while 
such an increase in the degree of drunkenness is 
thought sufficient to authorize these new doctrines 
and laws, no diminution of that degree can ever bring 
back the old ; for the present enactment is " a 
solemn moral obligation, upon every man, to abstain 
totally, and forever." 



TEMPERANCE. 



137 



It is not very easy to measure the degree of 
drunkenness in different ages of the world. We have 
no methumometer by which to test it. But we need 
not much regret its want, for a very slight glance 
at the history of drunkenness in the days of inspi- 
ration, will show that there was abundant occasion 
for these new enactments ; this new light, as its 
votaries fondly regard it ; this old darkness, as it has 
proved to be, if, in the judgment of the Most High, 
they had been regarded as expedient. 

Noah, the second father of the race, with whom 
commences the history of wine, became drunk. — Gen. 
ix., 21. What ought to have been done on that oc- 
casion ? Our modern reformers would say, prevent 
the evil for all time to come by absolute prohibition 
of the thing that causes it. Is any such law en- 
acted by Divine authority ? We have seen in innum- 
erable declarations, that no such thing ever " came 
into the mind of Him who knows the end from the 
beginning, and from ancient times the things that 
are not yet done, whose counsel shall stand, and 
who will do all his pleasure." Drunkenness is pre- 
dicted as one cause of divine judgments upon Israel. 
Deut. xxix., 19. Eli's charge against Hannah would 
not have been made by so amiable a man, if it had 
not been a frequent offense ! — 1 Sam. i. David says, 
he was the song of the drunkards. — Ps. lxix., 12. 
The Proverbs abound in reference to that sin. 
Isaiah rebukes the country of Ephraim as character- 
ized by drunkenness. — Isaiah xxviii., 1. " Wo to the 



138 



SERMONS. 



crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, 
whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which are 
on the head of the fat valleys of them that are over- 
come with wine." Joel speaks of them as a numer- 
ous class of men. " Awake, ye drunkards, and weep ; 
and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the 
new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth." — 
Joel i., 5. 

In the New Testament, our Lord was reproached 
with drunkenness, because he used wine. " The 
son of man is come eating and drinking, and ye say, 
Behold a gluttonous man, and a wine-bibber." — 
Luke vii., 37. Our Lord, in the parable of the 
steward, plainly intimates that it was a frequent oc- 
currence " to eat, and to be drunken." — Luke xii., 
45 ; Matt, xxiv., 49. And he solemnly warns the 
men of that generation, " Take heed to yourselves, 
lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with 
surfeiting and drunkenness, and cares of this life," 
Luke xxL, 34, putting drunkenness in the same 
category with surfeiting and cares of this world, 
which have in every age been besetting sins. He 
charged the Pharisees themselves with being inward- 
ly full of extortion and excess.* Matt, xxiii., 25. 

The apostles were charged with being drunk, be- 
cause filled with new wine. — Acts ii., 13. And the 
charge was repelled, not because it was a very un- 
usual offense, but because it was a very unusual 



* " Cibus et potus qui intemperantersumitur." — Schleusner. 



TEMPERANCE. 



139 



time in the day to commit it. " Seeing it is 
but the third hour of the day"; verse 15, — about 
nine o'clock in the morning. How many people 
would think it credible now, that a minister of the 
gospel was drunk in the pulpit at nine o'clock in the 
morning ? some total abstinence men would — no- 
body in their sober senses. Drunkards were found 
even in churches planted by the apostles. " But now 
I have written unto you, not to keep company, if 
any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or 
covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, 
oa a extortioner ; with such a one no not to eat." 
I Cor. v., 11. It is found in every general enumera- 
tion of prevailing sins. " Nor thieves, nor covetous, 
nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall 
inherit the kingdom of God." — 1 Cor. vi., 10. 
" Envying, murder, drunkenness, revelings, and such 
like." — Gal. v., 21. The Christians of the church 
of Ephesus are admonished, " Be not drunk with 
wine, wherein is excess ; but be ye filled with the 
Spirit." — Eph. v., 18. And such a scene could not 
be paralleled in any Christian church in the present 
day, as that described in the church of Corinth, 
when observing the sacred ordinance of the Lord's 
Supper : " For in eating, every one taketh before 
other his own supper : and one is hungry, and another 
is drunken." — 1 Cor. xi., 21. According to a softer 
interpretation, still it was a very unseemly exhibi- 
tion — " one is hungry and thirsty, and another has 
eaten and drunken abundantly." In his letter to 



140 



SERMONS. 



the Thessalonians, he exhorts them not to imitate 
the unregenerate in their drunkenness : " They that 
be drunken, are drunken in the night ; but let us, 
who are of the day, be sober." — I Thes. v., 7, 8. 
And to the church at Rome, in her days of greatest 
purity, he writes : " Let us walk honestly, as in the 
day ; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in cham- 
bering and wantonness, not in strife and envying." — 
Rom. xiii., 13. According to the new doctrine of 
expediency, the church of Rome is right in super- 
seding the truth and laws of God by her own doc- 
trine and laws, for her circumstances are entirely 
changed. From being the pure spouse of Christ, 
she has become " Mystery, Babylon the great, the 
mother of harlots and abominations of the earth." 
Rev. xvii., 5. 

The marriage of Cana affords instruction on this 
point also. The master of the feast refers to a com- 
mon custom indicating the state prevalent at that 
time. " Every man at the beginning doth set forth 
good wine, and when men have well drunk, then that 
which is worse." — John ii., 10. Here it is plainly 
asserted, as a common practice on such occasions, 
to continue to drink after men had " drunk abun- 
dantly." There is no evidence to my mind that there 
is any such general practice at weddings now. 
After this review it must be evident to every candid 
mind, that all the reasoning by which the expedi- 
ency of the doctrine of total abstinence is urged 
was as appropriate in the days of inspiration as at 



TEMPERANCE. 



141 



this day. Is drunkenness a prevailing sin ? so it 
was then. Does the use of these drinks terminate, 
in many cases, in their abuse ? so it did then. And 
if the only safe and efficient means of promoting 
temperance now be total abstinence, so it was then. 
But so did not judge the only wise God our Saviour. 
The plan of correcting the abuses of a thing by 
abolishing its use, if carried out, would deprive us 
of every good thing which God has given us, for 
everything is abused ; and while man remains cur- 
rupt, will be abused. Liberty is abused in the state. 
Is the only cure for it absolute despotism ? The 
liberty of speech and of the press are grossly abused. 
Is every man under solemn, moral obligation to give 
up his liberties, because some men abuse them by 
lying and slanderingtheir neighbors, and propagating 
all sorts of heresies, and follies, and sins ? Money 
is abused. It is the grand idol of the world. Is it 
every man's duty never more to touch so great an 
evil ? If this principle be carried out, the whole 
world must stand still and utterly perish from inac- 
tion. 

Like every other attempt to improve upon the 
wisdom of God by human presumption and folly, 
this scheme of total abstinence introduces a thou- 
sand evils, without removing one. Its utter ineffi- 
ciency in removing intemperance, is seen on a large 
scale among the Turks and Persians, the greatest 
sensualists on earth ; and whatever different results 
have attended it in this country, are to be ascribed 



142 



SERMONS. 



to other influences, and to the truth which has been 
employed in connection with this error. Its whole 
history has shown this doctrine to be productive of 
the most baleful consequences. At its origin, in the 
early ages of Christianity, it corrupted the ordinance 
of the Lord's Supper, introduced a scheme of reli- 
gion "which darkened the whole face of Chris- 
tianity, and produced the worst of errors and since 
its resurrection in our own times, it has divided the 
friends of temperance, produced lying and calumny 
of private and ministerial character, exalted men, 
who have hardly yet opened their eyes from the 
drunken doze of years, to the rank of public teach- 
ers, to rebuke the Christian ministry, and reform 
the church — men so obstinately perverse, that con- 
trary to the instructions of their employers, they 
spend much of their time in reviling all who oppose 
them, hurling the thunderbolts of their anathema at 
the head of every one who presumes to doubt their 
infallibility, and proving that whether they are 
reformed from drunkenness or not, they are not 
reformed from lying and defamation. It has con- 
tradicted Divine testimonies, made void Divine laws, 
undermined the authority of the whole Bible, and 
thus struck at the heart of all true religion and 
morality. The expediency which produces such 
results, may be called wisdom with man, but it is 
foolishness with God. He who adopts this rule, is 
like a ship at sea without ballast, without chart, and 
without compass, at the absolute mercy of every 



TEMPERANCE. 



143 



wind and wave, and, without a miracle, will inevi- 
tably be foundered or dashed upon the rocks. The 
expediency which acts in independence of the direc- 
tions of the Divine word, and in contradiction to 
its numerous and explicit declarations, is only 
another name for infidelity — that infidelity which, 
fighting side by side with popery, is straining every 
nerve to annihilate the authority of the Bible, and 
utterly to destroy all true protestant Christianity. 
It is this which gives its overwhelming interest to 
the present controversy. It is a strife for the prize 
of ruling the conscience and life of immortal man, 
between the Bible and human reason, between the 
authority of God, and the authority of man. To 
all who have adopted this heresy, I say in my own 
name, and in the name of all the ministers of Christ 
who have taught you the truth, " I marvel that you 
are so soon removed from him that called you into 
the grace of Christ, into another gospel : which is 
not another; but there be some that trouble you, 
and would pervert the gospel of Christ." — Gal. 1., 6, 
7. I warn, I adjure you, cling to the Bible as the 
world's last hope. Let no siren voice, under the 
specious plea of science, or morality, or sanctity 
itself, lead you away from the voice, the eternal 
wisdom, that speaks to you from heaven. " All 
scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is pro- 
fitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for 
instruction in righteousness; that the man of God 
may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good 



144 



SERMONS. 



works" — 2 Tim. iii., 16, 17. "The law of the Lord 
is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of 
the Lord is sure, making wise the simple ; the 
statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart : 
the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening 
the eyes : the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring 
forever : the judgments of the . Lord are true, and 
righteous altogether." — Ps. xix. 7-9. " Now, there- 
fore, hearken unto me, O ye children : for blessed 
are they that keep my ways. Hear instruction, and 
be wise, and refuse it not. Blessed is the man that 
heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at 
the posts of my doors : for whoso findeth me, 
findeth life, and shall obtain favor of the Lord. But 
he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul : 
all they that hate me love death." — Prov. viii., 
32-36. 



SERMONS ON THE GEOLOGY 
OF THE BIBLE. 



145 



I. 



" Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed 
by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not 
made of things which do appear." — Hebrews xi., 3. 

A S the God of the Bible is the only living and 



true God, the Creator of the heavens and the 
earth, so the Bible itself gives the only true account 
of the origin of the world, and of all things that are 
therein. The speculations of philosophy on this 
subject are full of contradiction and absurdity, and 
serve only to darken counsel by words without 
knowledge. 

Since the truth has been published to the world, 
incessant attempts have been made to disprove it. 
In this unholy enterprise cosmogonists and geolo- 
gists have been distinguished for their zeal, if not 
for their ability, some in avowed opposition to the 
sacred Scriptures, and others under plausible pro- 
fessions of respect for their authority. The last 
class is most dangerous, inasmuch as their profes- 
sions lay to sleep the vigilance of Christians, until 
the poison of infidelity has been infused, and many 
are brought within its pestilential sphere of influence 
who would otherwise have been aware of the danger 
and avoided it. In whatever else these classes 




147 



148 



SERMONS. 



differ, they agree in the main point — they contra- 
dict the testimony of holy writ ; and if their posi- 
tion be established, it gives to infidelity a fulcrum 
by which it can overturn the last hope of man. 

I shall first state the question, next confirm the 
doctrine of the Scriptures and of the church, and 
next refute its opposites. 

I. This is strictly a theological question, and not 
one of scientific investigation or nomenclature. 
" By faith we understand that the worlds were 
framed by the word of God, so that things which 
are seen, were not made of things which do appear." 
— Heb. xi., 3. But for the testimony of its Author, 
we could know nothing of the origin of the world or 
of ourselves. We are not then at liberty to over- 
look that testimony, nor to put upon a level with it 
the inferences of erring and ignorant men from the 
extremely scanty knowledge which they have, or 
ever can have, of the work itself. Whenever Jeho- 
vah speaks, his testimony is decisive, and we are not 
at liberty to withhold our full and implicit faith 
until we learn from other sources of evidence that 
it is true. This were, according to his own construc- 
tion, to treat the Most High as a common liar, 
whom we will not believe on his own testimony. 
" He that believeth not God, hath made him a liar." 
The most conclusive argument with a Christian is, 
" Thus saith the Lord." When we have the testi- 
mony of the author of a work as to the time when 
lie made it, and the materials of which it is com- 



GEOLOGY OF THE BIBLE. 



149 



posed, it is worse than useless to go about examin- 
ing the work, to make out for ourselves the same 
points ; which, if our informer be true, we know al- 
ready far better than we could ever learn by any in- 
vestigation of the work itself. But when the au- 
thor of the work is God, and he has told us when he 
made it, and that he had no pre-existing materials 
out of which it was constructed, it is worse than ab- 
surd — it is high-handed rebellion — to attempt to 
make out from the very work, that its author is a 
liar. 

The doctrine of the Christian church, in all its 
denominations, is truly expressed in the Shorter 
Catechism of the Westminster Assembly — the most 
truly learned and pious assembly that ever convened 
since the days of the apostles, or the Synod at Jer- 
usalem. " The work of creation, is God's making 
all things of nothing, by the word of his power, in 
the space of six days, and all very good." 

The opposing doctrines, not of true science, which 
has always been the humble ally and friend of reve- 
lation, but of philosophy, falsely so called, have 
varied their forms at different periods. One posi- 
tion was that the world was older, in its present or- 
ganization, than the Bible chronology makes it. 
This position is avowedly infidel, and has been re- 
futed by Cuvier himself, the highest scientific au- 
thority on such a point. That is not the question 
at this time. There are two other positions profess- 
ing respect for the Scriptures, but agreeing substan- 



tialry with the former in contradicting the Divine 
testimony, which ought to be exposed in their true 
colors, so that if any one will maintain them he may 
be placed where he of right belongs in this respect — 
in the ranks, and fighting side by side with the 
deadly and determined enemies of Divine revela- 

One of these is that the period occupied in mak- 
ing the world was six thousand years, or periods of 
time of an indefinite length. On this point a few 
zz::.z:\i ~ih be in :hei: z'.lz^. Z_: -e have 

to do at present principally with the position of Mr. 
Buckland, which, in his own words, " suppose the 
word ' beginning,* as applied by Moses in the first 
verse of the book of Genesis, to express an unde- 
fined period of time, which was antecedent to the 
i = s: rrei: charge -hi: Lzzzzzti the surface of the 
earth, and to the creation of its present animal and 
vegetable inhabitants, during which period a long 
series of operations and revolutions may have been 
going on, which, as they are wholly unconnected 
:he h:5::ry :: the h:~ = r. r=:e. ire pissti ever 
in silence by the sacred historian, whose only con- 
:em i:h thent is h = reiy :: = :i:e :ha: :he rr.i::er 
of the universe is not eternal and self-existent, 
but was originally enacted by the power of the Al- 
mighty.** — (Buckland' s Bridge water Treatise, vol. I, 
p. 25.) 

This position is a contradiction to the received 
doctrine of the Christian church, which dates the 



GEOLOGY OF THE BIBLE. 



creation of the world at the first six days of Moses, 
and denies the existence of its material before that 
period. Both sides of a contradiction cannot be 
true. Either the Christian church or Mr. Buckland 
is grievously in error. The appeal is " to the word 
and to the testimony; if they speak not according 
to these things it is because there is no light in 
them." And as the Bible is to Christians the only 
infallible rule of faith, it is to be interpreted accord- 
ing to the rules by which we would interpret any 
other document, and chiefly by its own rule — "com- 
paring spiritual things with spiritual." 

2. That the church here is not mistaken in the 
doctrine which she believes and inculcates, will be 
evident to any one who, without the bias of any 
favorite theory, will humbly submit his understand- 
ing to be taught by the Father of lights, as his tes- 
timony is recorded in the history of Moses, in refer- 
ences to it by different inspired writers, and by the 
Son himself, and by the formal decision of the 
apostle. " By faith we understand that the worlds 
were framed by the word of God, so that things 
which are seen were NOT made of things which do 
appear." — Heb. xi., 3. 

The first chapter of Genesis contains a formal, 
particular, and chronological account of the work of 
creation, when it was made, and what was done in 
each division of the whole time employed in it. 
The very first word informs us that the account 
commences in the beginning of the whole subject, 



SERMONS. 



and of which before this period there was nothing. 
The first act of creating power gave being to the 
heavens and the earth. The appearance of things 
at that point is described in the second verse. The 
second movement of Almighty power produces the 
light. Then follows a description of the work at 
this stage of it. And thus, the Creator himself in- 
forms us, one day has passed. Here we have a 
description of two acts of Divine power, and a de- 
scription of the work, following each. The only date 
of the whole work, thus far, is the first of the six 
days. The third movement was the production of 
the atmosphere, called the expanse and heavens. 
This is described, and two days have passed. The 
fourth movement was the separation of the water 
and dry land, and the production of the vegetable 
kingdom, and the third day is passed. The sun, 
moon, and stars, are the work of the fourth day. 
Of the fifth, the inhabitants of the air, and the 
water. And the land-animals and man, of the sixth. 
It is the obvious and particular purpose of the his- 
torian to date every work to the very day, and to 
give the day, not at the beginning, but at the close 
of the works of that day, so that all which is related 
before the mention of that day, and after the pre- 
ceding day, belongs to it ; all, therefore, which pre- 
cedes the morning of the first day, as no other time 
is mentioned, belongs to the work of that day. 
This interpretation is confirmed not only by the 
obvious design of the author, but from universal 



GEOLOGY OF THE BIBLE. 



*53 



usage in such cases. When a historian gives us the 
annals of a nation, we understand him to say that 
all the events connected with a particular year oc- 
curred during that year, unless he explicitly informs 
us otherwise. And we should consider it as the 
greatest negligence and unfaithfulness, to record 
among the events of the first year of the people's 
history what had occurred a thousand years before. 
All the character of Moses as a competent and faith- 
ful historian, and what is more, the authority of the 
Holy Spirit who taught him, assures us that the date 
of the production of the chaos was the first of the 
six days. As an illustration and proof of this, I 
refer to Josephus, the Jewish historian, who places 
in the period of 3833 years, from the creation to the 
death of Isaac, this very account of the production 
of the chaos. " In the beginning God created the 
heavens and the earth. But when the earth did not 
come into sight, but was covered with thick dark- 
ness, and a wind moved upon its surface, God com- 
manded that there should be light ; and when that 
was made he considered the whole mass, and sep- 
arated the light and the darkness, and the name he 
gave to the one was night, and the other he called 
day. And he named the beginning of light, and the 
time of rest the evening and the morning, and this 
was indeed the first day." Josephus, Antiquities, 
vol. i., p. 80. 

Besides the impropriety of charging upon Moses 
an anachronism so monstrous as to date on the first 



154 



SERMONS. 



day of our present system what occurred millions of 
years before, it is further manifest that the interpre- 
tation of the church is the true one, because the 
light was created in the latter half of the first day, 
and something must have been done in the part 
called the evening, or our system begins half a day 
later than the account of Moses. Creation began 
with the first act of creating power ; before that act 
it was not, but it began in the evening, before there 
was any light, and no act is mentioned before the 
creation of light, but the creation of the heavens 
and the earth in the state described ; therefore that 
act belongs inevitably to the first half of the first day. 

2. This view is confirmed by every passage of 
sacred Scripture in which the creation is referred to. 
" Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and 
all the host of them. And on the seventh day God 
ended his work which he had made ; and he rested 
on the seventh day from all his work which he had 
made. And God blessed the seventh day and sancti- 
fied it : because that in it he had rested from all his 
work which God created and made. These are the 
[successive productions or] generations of the heav- 
ens, and of the earth when they were created, in the 
day that the Lord God made the earth and the 
heavens." — Gen. ii., 1-4. In direct reference to 
the previous account it is declared to embrace all 
God's works, created and made, in heaven and earth, 
in their successive order, and at the one period oc- 
cupied in the work, the first six days of time. It is 



GEOLOGY OF THE BIBLE. 155 



hard to conceive what would express the doctrine 
of the church, if this language does not. If to create 
is more than to make, then all his work created and 
made was performed in six days. Ex. xx., 11 : 
" For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, 
the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh 
day." He made the things containing and the 
things contained, the places and their inhabitants. 
The compass of the language seems to be exhausted 
to express, in every possible form, that God made 
all things of nothing, in the space of six days. John 
i., 1-3 : "All things were made by him ; and with- 
out him was not any thing made which was made," 
compared with Heb. i., 10 : " Thou Lord, in the be- 
ginning hast laid the foundation of the earth, and 
the heavens are the works of thine hands. They 
shall perish, but thou remainest." From these pas- 
sages it is proved that the Son of God made all things 
and without him there was nothing but God ; that 
the beginning of his creating all things from nothing 
was when he laid the foundation of the earth and 
made the heavens — the very earth and heavens which 
now are, and are to be destroyed. " Have ye not 
read, that he which made them at THE BEGINNING 
made them male and female ? " — Matt, xix., 4. " But 
from the beginning of the creation, God made them 
male and female." — Mark x., 6. Thus the Son him- 
self, whose work creation is, informs us that its be- 
ginning was the period of six days in which man 
was made. 



i56 



SERMONS. 



3. This series of direct testimonies to the truth 
and certainty of the common faith may be closed 
with the express and unequivocal decision by the 
apostle : " Through faith we understand that the 
worlds were framed by the word of God, so that 
things which are seen were not made of things which 
do appear." — Heb. xi., 3. The things that are seen 
were not made of any pre-existent matter otherwise 
that the matter must appear. The matter of which 
our world was made is manifest to our senses in the 
present state, and forms of it the things that are 
seen ; these things had therefore no previous exist- 
ence in any form, or they would now appear in their 
present form. " The things that are seen," is a philo- 
sophical definition of the present material things, 
since matter is known by our bodily senses, and of 
these material things, it is asserted that they were 
not made of things that do appear; that is, of their 
own, or any matter, under any form. 

This text, therefore, if the authority of the apostle 
is worth anything, is a perfect philosophical refuta- 
tion of the novel doctrine which some geologists 
would palm upon the church. Their doctrine is, 
the things that are seen in the present form were 
made of things that do appear, the material of our 
world existed before the commencement of the 
Mosaic history. The doctrine of the apostle is a 
point-blank contradiction to it ; the things that are 
seen were not made of things that do appear — that 
is, our present world was made of nothing. 



GEOLOGY OF THE BIBLE. 



157 



We have seen, then, by the unerring light of sacred 
Scripture, in the obvious and necessary meaning of 
the first chapter of these records, in frequent refer- 
ences to it by the inspired writers under both dis- 
pensations of the covenant, and by the Son of God 
himself, the Divine Architect, the one steady, uni- 
form doctrine that " God made all things of nothing 
by the word of his power IN THE SPACE OF SIX DAYS 
and all very good." 

This was so clear that it was seen and attested by 
the Jews. Josephus places what is related in the 
first verse of Genesis, among the events of the first 
period of 3833 years from the creation, to the death 
of Isaac. He begins that period with the creation 
of the chaotic mass, and regards it as part of the 
work of the first day. The Rabbins, says Dr. A. 
Clark, understood the first verse to denote that God 
in the beginning created the substance of the heav- 
ens, and the substance of the earth ; i.e., the prima 
materia, or first elements out of which the heavens 
and the earth were successively formed. The parti- 
cle eth, says Aben Ezra, signifies the substance of 
the thing ; so says Kimchi ; and with the Cabalists 
is often put mystically for the beginning and end, as 
Alpha (A) and Omega (£1) are in the Apocalypse. 
The Syrian translator understood the word in this 
sense, and to express his meaning has used the word 
yoth, which has this signification, and is very properly 
translated in Walton's Polyglot esse coeli et esse terra, 
the being or substance of the heaven, and the being 



SERMONS. 



or substance of the earth. Ephraim Syrus, in his 
comment on this place, uses the same Syrian word, 
and appears to understand it precisely in the same 
way. Jews and Christians of all denominations, in 
every age and every land to which the word of God 
has come, have declared with a voice like the sound 
of many waters, that they have seen in the common 
revelation this same truth. Whence came this uni- 
versal faith of the Church of God? Not from philo- 
sophy : the philosophers were, to a man, either 
ignorant of the truth, or denied it. Not from the 
light of nature ; for where revelation is not, the 
true doctrine of creation is unknown. If they are 
mistaken, the mistake must be charged to the Book 
of God ; for to no other source can it be traced. But 
it is no mistake. It is a truth which like the rock 
against which the waves dash themselves to foam has 
stood unshaken by all the attempts of its opposers, 
and will remain when heavens and the earth shall 
be no more. 

As one " set for the defense of the gospel," and 
required to " contend earnestly for the faith once 
delivered to the saints," I have shown from the holy 
Scriptures, in their plain and obvious meaning, the 
truth of the doctrine generally held in the churches 
on this subject. 

Christians, cling to your Bible. Stand fast in the 
faith. Be not moved away from the faith of the 
gospel which you have heard, in which you have 
been instructed. " Be not carried about with every 



GEOLOGY OF THE BIBLE. 



159 



wind of doctrine by the sleight of man, and cunning 
craftiness, whereby they lay in wait to deceive.", 
And when the truth is established by the testimony 
of God, you ought to adhere to it with unshaken 
confidence, and not for a moment admit the possi- 
bility of error in that testimony, whatever argument 
may be brought against it, and however honorable 
a name it may assume. You may not listen to the 
tempter, even to suspend your judgment till he 
show that the truth is false, or does not teach what 
it does teach. Every such proposal must be met at 
the threshold with the indignant repulse, " Get thee 
behind me, Satan," or your faith will be shaken 
by every wind of doctrine which the God of this 
world knows so well how to raise. Had our first 
parents repelled the first insinuation of the 
tempter, they and their race had escaped the 
ruins of the fearful apostacy, which began in hes- 
itation and doubt, and ended in presumption and 
disobedience. Gaze with steady, unaverted eye at 
the truth of the Divine testimony. Pray to the 
Author and Finisher of your faith, to increase your 
faith. 

Believe his declarations, embrace his promises,, 
fear his threatenings, and yield yourselves up to be 
moulded by his word into the image of your God ; 
that " beholding as in a glass the glory of God, you 
may be changed into the same image from glory to 
glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." 



II. 



" Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed 
by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not 
made of things which do appear. " — Hebrews xi., 3. 

THUS far I have stood upon the defensive, and 
shown that we teach and believe " none other 
things than Moses, and the prophets, and apostles, 
did write." It is proper now that the tables be 
turned, and it be demanded of our assailants, by 
what authority they seek to overturn the established 
faith of the Christian church. 

Do the Scriptures teach this new doctrine? No. 
Its advocates themselves do not pretend this. 
They only claim that they are silent. " They do 
not impeach the judgment of those who have for- 
merly interpreted it (the Mosaic narrative) other- 
wise, and in this respect geology would seem to 
require some little concession from the literal inter- 
pretation of Scripture." — (Buckland, p. 20.) Here 
it is admitted the Mosaic narrative was literally 
interpreted, and with judgment unimpeached, in 
establishing the commonly received and popular 
interpretation, independent of geological facts. 
This is virtually giving up the scriptural argument. 
It is admitting that the independent testimony of 

160 



GEOLOGY OF THE BIBLE. 



161 



Scripture, literally interpreted, is against the new- 
doctrine. As that testimony is the only infallible 
rule of faith and practice, when fairly interpreted, 
according to its own independent meaning, it de- 
cides the question against every doctrine contrary 
to its own. It has been shown that the Scriptures, 
literally interpreted according to the only known 
use of language, establish the doctrine which con- 
tradicts this new theory. But the rule of inter- 
preting by the aid of language, is indispensable to 
the attainment of any information from any docu- 
ment. To ask us to give up that rule, is equivalent 
to a request that we would give up the Bible as a 
revelation ; nay, if the new principle of interpreta- 
tion be true, it is worse than waste-paper — it mis- 
leads those who trust in it. It says one thing, and 
means its opposite. 

In exposing the errors of the theory of geologists, 
I shall examine their attempt to reconcile it with 
the Mosaic account ; then show its contrariety to it 
and the other parts of Scripture on the same sub- 
ject ; and then make some remarks on the theory, 
as occupying the ground of open and avowed infi- 
delity. 

I. Examine their reasons for saying that their 
hypothesis is not inconsistent with the Scriptures. 
They confine their remarks to the Mosaic narrative, 
and almost exclusively to the first and second verses 
of the first chapter of Genesis, as if the Scripture 
w r ere silent upon the subject everywhere else. This 



162 



SERMONS. 



policy indicates their consciousness of the weakness 
of their cause, or their culpable negligence in not 
searching the Scriptures more fully and accurately 
before they venture to set aside one of their most 
decisive announcements. 

(a) The first reason is : " It is nowhere affirmed 
that God created the heaven and the earth on the 
first day, but in the beginning " (p. 26). This argu- 
ment would prove that he had not made anything 
on any of the days ; for God is not said to create 
the light on the first day, nor the firmament on the 
second, nor the sea and land on the third, nor the 
luminaries on the fourth, nor sea animals and birds 
on the fifth, nor land animals and man on the sixth. 
But in the very way in which he refers these respec- 
tive works to their proper days, in the same way 
does he refer the creation of the heaven and the 
earth to the first day. 

(b) Again, it is said : " The creation of each day 
is preceded by the declaration that God said or 
willed that such things should be, (' And God said ') 
and, therefore the very form of the narrative seems 
to imply that the creation of the first day began 
when these words are first used, with the crea- 
tion of light in verse three " (p. 29). But this phrase 
is used not only at the beginning of the work of the 
day, but in the middle of it, as in the work of the 
sixth day, after the creation of the land animals, we 
read — " And God said, Let us make man " (ver. 26). 
If this phrase may be used in the middle of the 



GEOLOGY OF THE BIBLE. 



163 



work of the sixth day, it may with equal propriety 
be used in the middle of the work of the first. The 
difference in the form of speech may be intended to 
mark the difference between creating and making. 

(c) " Many of the fathers supposed the first two 
verses of Genesis to contain an account of a distinct 
and prior act of creation. Some, as Augustine, 
Theodoret, and others, that of the creation of mat- 
ter ; others, that of the elements ; others again — 
and they the most numerous — imagine that not 
these visible heavens, but what they think to be 
called elsewhere the highest heavens, the heaven of 
heavens, are here spoken of " (p. 29). 

These are mere opinions, and far more than coun- 
terbalanced by the concurrent opinions of every 
department of the church of God, in every age, un- 
til this day. Besides, none of their opinions are any 
support to the doctrine of geologists, that this world 
was made out of the wreck of a former world. 

(d) In some old editions of the English Bible, 
where there is no division into verses, you actually 
find a break at the end of what is now the second 
verse. And in Luther's Bible, Wittemberg, 1557, 
you have in addition the figure 1 placed against the 
third verse." But this division in translations is of 
no authority in fixing the meaning of Moses. Be- 
sides, the paragraphs added to the text of the He- 
brew Bible were intended to distinguish the different 
parts of the creation, and not the times in which it 
was performed. Accordingly, while one of these 



164 



SERMONS. 



divides the work of the first day into two parts, two 
of them divide that of the sixth into three. 

(e) Professor Pusey says (p. 30), "'that the words, 
' Let there be light/ by no means necessarily imply 
any more than the English words by which they are 
translated, that light had never existed before ; they 
may speak only of the substitution of light for dark- 
ness upon the surface of this our planet." And yet 
this same Dr. Pusey has told us, " that the creation 
of the first day began with the creation of light in 
verse 3d " (p. 29) ; that making, when spoken in 
reference to God, is equivalent to creating. Does 
he mean by creating the light, an incipient disper- 
sion of dense vapors ? Who ever heard such lan- 
guage to express such an event ? 

(/) This case is said to be of the same kind with 
astronomical phenomena; and as Moses does not 
teach astronomy, therefore neither does he teach 
cosmogony. 

But the cases are entirely unlike : first, because 
the Scriptures contradict the cosmogony of geolog- 
ists, while they say nothing about the Newtonian 
system of astronomy ; secondly, because, in speak- 
ing of the work of creation, the Scriptures use lan- 
guage in the sense in which it was understood at 
the time when they were written ; but geologists 
give it a meaning which it never had from the 
foundation of the world until this hour. According 
to these persons, when God said, " Let there be 
light " on the first day, and when he made the sun, 



GEOLOGY OF THE BIBLE. 



and moon, and stars on the fourth day, he did not 
make either of them. He only cleared away the 
dense vapors — the fog — that hid them from view ! 
If this be the way the Scriptures are to be under- 
stood, the oracle at Delphi was clear as the sun 
compared with the darkness that may be felt. If 
this be their manner of communicating knowledge, 
neither the outposts nor the citadel are worth a 
moment's contest. 

Lastly. " Dr. Chalmers favors the geologists." If 
he does, he must answer to his Master for deserting 
his post. But he calls these great geological revela- 
tions " pretended discoveries." Even he, then, is not 
sure they are true. And while he spurns the idea 
of conceding to these discoveries the literalities of 
the text, he refers to the only principle of interpre- 
tation by which they can be vindicated, with an 
" IF it may be adopted." And what is that princi- 
ple? " To suppose that the Mosaic description 
proceeds, not in the order of creation actually, but 
in its order optically ; or, in other words, that the 
sun and moon were not first made, but first made 
visible on the fourth day." — (Hitchcock, p. 332.) 
So, then, the work of the fourth day was not to 
create or make anything, but to do what is done 
often in an hour — clear away a fog which hides the 
face of the sun ! But what will he do with the 
stars? Were they, too, visible as well as the sun? 
And who saw them before either the animals or 
man were created ? If Dr. Chalmers will abandon 



i66 



SEXJ/OXS. 



an outpost which he once held in common with his 
brethren, and return to the citadel, and, instead of 
aiding those who stand against the enemy, will turn 
his artillery upon them, he acts the part which, in 
any other tactics but the defense of the Bible, 
would subject an officer to be cashiered for coward- 
ice, or broken upon the wheel for treason to his 
king. 

2. Let us next compare this theory with the 
Scriptures which treat on this subject. The theory 
of pre-existent worlds is contradicted by the history 
of creation given by Moses, who states the creation 
of the matter of the world in immediate connection 
with its reduction into its present form ; whereas, 
if this theory were true, he must have informed us 
of these new facts, that there were other worlds be- 
fore ours, and that from the wreck of one of them 
ours was constructed. Such an important fact 
could no more be omitted than the fact of the 
deluge. That Moses has given us a particular ac- 
count of the deluge, demonstrates that he could 
not possibly have passed unnoticed the overthrow 
of the world, which God created back in indefinite 
duration, and out of the ruins of one of which ours, 
Phoenix-like, has arisen. This theory supposes that 
he has described the state of the wreck, without 
telling us it was a wreck, or how it came to be in 
the condition described. It supposes such a chasm 
in the history, as there would have been if Moses 
had omitted the sixth and seventh chapters of Gen- 



GEOLOGY OF THE BIBLE, 



167 



esis ; and without intimating that anything remark- 
able had happened, had passed from the history of 
Lamech to that of Noah, riding with his family and 
the nucleus of a new world upon the waters of a 
universal deluge. It supposes that when the 
Scriptures speak of the creation of the heavens and 
the earth, they do not mean that the heavens were 
either created or made, or that any change passed 
upon them, in the period to which they refer ; and 
that the earth instead of being created or made, 
only underwent some change in its outer crust ; 
that the creation of which they speak was neither 
the first production and regular formation of the 
heavens and the earth, which took place millions of 
millions of years before, nor the last change which 
had passed upon them at the deluge, which they do 
not pretend is ever called the creation. The pres- 
ent creation, then, is neither, according to this 
theory, the first and proper creation, nor the last 
formation. What then ? The last formation but 
one, when man was made, and some of the animals 
of the former worlds reproduced, and others added 
to them ! What the Bible calls creation, this theory 
calls a change upon the surface. What the Bible 
represents as an original production, this theory 
represents as only a reproduction. Those who can 
reconcile all that, have little reason to deride the 
credulity of the church, which has relied upon the 
plain and uniform meaning of the holy oracles, in 
believing, for nearly six thousand years, that in 



i68 



SERMONS. 



" six days God made heaven and earth, the sea, and 
all that in them is, and rested the seventh day "; 
and that " the worlds were framed by the word of 
God, so that the things which ARE SEEN were NOT 
made of things which do appear." 

The Bible says, Gen. ii., 4, that the first chapter 
contains the account of the successive productions 
of the heavens and the earth, when they were 
CREATED, " IN THE DAY that the Lord God made 
the earth and the heavens "; that is, the whole of 
these works were performed in the one period of 
six days referred to. But this theory says they 
were performed at many and remote periods com- 
prising millions of years. 

The Bible says, Ex. xx., 1 1 : " For in six days the 
Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that 
in them is, and rested the seventh day ; wherefore 
the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." 
But this theory says, that in these six days he 
neither made heaven, nor earth, nor sea, for they all 
were made long before ; and so far from making all 
things in them, that there were in them innumera- 
ble remains of the animals and vegetables of former 
worlds. 

The Bible says, Mark x., 6, that man was made, 
and marriage instituted in that period of six days 
in which creation began, — " FROM THE BEGINNING 
of the creation God made them male and female." 
But this theory asserts that the creation began long 
before in worlds on worlds unnumbered. It would 



GEOLOG Y OF THE BIBLE. 



169 



have been as proper to date the birth of John at the 
beginning of the creation as the institution of mar- 
riage : they would both be indefinitely remote from 
the true date. 

The Bible says, Heb. i., 10, 11 : " Thou, Lord, in 
the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth ; 
and the heavens are the works of thy hands. They 
shall perish." These very heavens, and this very 
earth, which now are and await their destruction. 
But this theory asserts it was a different earth, in 
which no man dwelt, and heavens which no man 
saw until millions of ages afterwards, when they are 
said to be made, although, at that time, they were 
neither created nor made. 

The Bible says : " The things which are seen were 
NOT made of things which do appear "; i.e., the vis- 
ible creation was made of no pre-existent matter. 
But this theory asserts that the very things which 
are now seen WERE made of things that do appear ; 
that is, the present world is only another world a 
little modified and altered to suit its present inhab- 
itants. 

Between the Bible, then, and this theory, there is 
obvious, palpable, and irreconcilable contradiction. 
In the history of Moses, in the law delivered by 
Jehovah himself from Sinai, and recorded by him- 
self on tables of stone, in prophecies, and in doc- 
trinal discussions, the subject of creation is presented 
in one and the same unvarying aspect. And no 
principle of interpretation exists, or can be in- 



SERMONS. 



vented, to reconcile the testimony of holy writ with 
the theory of these geologists, which will not wipe 
out, as with a sponge, the whole meaning of the 
oracles of God. Another theory is held by other 
geologists equally at war with the necessary mean- 
ing of the word of truth, that the days in which the 
work of creation was performed need not be under- 
stood to imply the same length of time which is 
now " occupied by a single revolution of the globe, 
but successive periods, each of great extent." 

To sustain this meaning of the word day in this 
connection — the first chapter of Genesis — neither 
Mr. Buckland, nor Professor Silliman, whom he 
quotes as favorable to this interpretation, give any 
•reason whatever, drawn from the Scriptures, or the 
laws of interpretation. All that I have heard or 
seen as the shadow of an argument is, that the word 
is used in various senses in different parts of Scrip- 
tures, as well as in common discourse. But, because 
a word has different significations, it does not there- 
fore mean everything or anything you please, which 
this argument implies. 

That rule would throw all language into chaos ; 
so, to help out these splendid discoveries in science, 
we are modestly asked to give up all the determinate 
meaning of human language. When a word has dif- 
ferent meanings, its most common signification is to 
be preferred, unless something in the context, or 
other parts of Scripture, require another of its 
meanings. 



GEOLOGY OF THE BIBLE. 



171 



In the use of this word in the first chapter of 
Genesis, the most common meaning, or period of 
twenty-four hours, is not only unencumbered with 
any difficulty, but necessarily required by the con- 
text, and other passages of Scripture which refer to 
it. The evening and the morning, the darkness and 
the light describe that period during all generations 
of men. 

It is said, after the work of six days : " And on 
the seventh day God ended his work which he had 
made ; and he rested on the seventh day from all 
his work which he had made. And God blessed the 
seventh day, and sanctified it." — Gen. ii. 2, 3. This 
was the institution of the weekly Sabbath, from 
which arose the division of time into weeks, so 
common, even among nations which had not a 
written revelation. In the fourth commandment 
this passage in Genesis is referred to as containing 
the reason for keeping the Sabbath : " Remember 
the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt 
thou labor and do all thy work ; but the seventh 
day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God 
for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, 
the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the sev- 
enth day : wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath 
day, and hallowed it." — Ex. xx. 8-1 1. Here it is 
expressly asserted that the day which the Lord 
sanctified and blessed is the seventh day, which fol- 
lows six days of labor or work. After six days' 
work God rested the seventh, and commands men 



172 



SERMONS. 



to follow his example. Now, what men are re- 
quired to do in this respect is what God has done ; 
but men are required to do their servile works on 
the other six days of the week, and rest from them 
on the seventh. This is almost too obvious for 
illustration ; and no human being, from the foun- 
dation of the world, ever understood these days 
otherwise, until geology was produced, and must 
be sustained, although at the cost to the church of 
her Bible, and to mankind of the use of their 
tongues and their pens, for if words have no de- 
terminate meaning, it is useless either to speak or 
to write. The common-sense view of this subject 
is confirmed by the egregious absurdities which 
flow from the lately invented meaning. According 
to the lowest reckoning on this scale of a thousand 
years for one day, the meaning of these Scriptures 
is, that God worked six thousand years, two thous- 
and of which were occupied in clearing away a fog, 
and then rested a thousand years ; therefore, he 
commands all men on earth to work six thousand 
years, and then rest the seventh ! But as no human 
being ever lived one thousand years, much less six, 
the command is an intrinsic absurdity. On this 
supposition no Sabbath has ever been kept on 
earth, for the six working days are not yet over. 
Had Adam lived to this hour, he would not have 
reached his first Sabbath. The birds and fishes 
made on the fifth day must have lived five hundred 
years in continual darkness. One side of the globe 



GEOLOGY OF THE BIBLE. 



173 



scorched, and the other frozen, with intolerable 
heat and cold, how could either vegetables or ani- 
mals exist at at all ? 

Thus it has been shown that the doctrine of the 
church and the doctrine of the Bible, on the subject 
of the creation — the first article of revealed truth — 
are identical ; that the attempt to reconcile the 
theories of geologists with the direct and uniform 
testimony of God, is an outrage upon all scriptural 
exposition, an insult to the common sense of the 
community, and incompatible with the respect due 
to the word of Him that cannot lie. Many addi- 
tional considerations might be urged to show the 
dangerous tendency of these dogmata. I mention 
a very few of them, just as a sample of the contents 
of this Pandora's box : 

1. By identifying, in the meaning of the word 
" beginning," the duration of the Son of God with 
the duration of our world, they have degraded Him 
from the proper eternity which belongs to Him to a 
period of indefinite but still finite existence, before 
which He was not, or else they make the creation 
itself eternal, which is to confound the attributes of 
the creature and the Creator. Those who believe 
this argument from the indefinite period indicated 
by the word beginning, because it is said, " In the 
beginning was ^the Word," to be consistent, must 
be either Arians or Atheists. 

2. This scheme represents our earth as a scene of 
carnage and death for millions of millions of years 



SERMONS. 



before the creation of man, or any creature upon it 
capable of sin. But the Bible represents death in 
our world as a consequence of sin, not only to man 
the sinner, but to all his dependents ; and the curse 
rests upon the world, which is his habitation. 
" Cursed be the ground for thy sake." " For the 
creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, 
but by reason of Him that hath subjected the same 
in hope ; the whole creation groaneth and travaileth 
until now, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the re- 
demption of our body." But if geologists be right, 
the apostacy of man wrought no change, in this 
respect, upon the world or its inhabitants. 

Christians, are you ready for this ? 

Let every presumptuous theorist beware how he 
touches upon the prerogatives of that Almighty 
Being, who spake and it was done, who commanded 
and it stood fast, the Amen, the faithful and true 
Witness, the beginning of the creation of God ; or 
if they will prefer their empty speculations to the 
sure word of the Creator and King Eternal, let 
them prepare to meet his awful challenge: " Who 
is this that darkeneth counsel by words without 
knowledge ? Gird up now thy loins like a man, for 
I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. Where 
wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth ? 
Declare, if thou hast understanding." " Shall he 
that contendeth with the Almighty, instruct him ? 
He that reproveth God, let him answer it." May 
every such person soon be brought to feel, and 



GEOLOGY OF THE BIBLE. 



175 



speak, and act as one of old, who had spoken unad- 
visedly with his lips, — " I have heard of thee with 
the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth 
thee, wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust 
and ashes ! " 



III. 



" Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed 
by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not 
made of things which do appear. — Heb. xi. 3. 

Here, then, the question might rest, if men would 
submit their understanding to be taught by Him 
who is Light. 

But as infidels glory in their pretended discover- 
ies as a complete refutation of the claims of the 
Bible to be a Divine revelation, and as Christians 
would desire to know how these infidels are to be 
met, it is proper to inquire into their boasted dis- 
coveries. In meeting the infidel philosophers on 
the common ground of right reason, it is neither 
wise nor right to abandon the vantage-ground on 
which the true doctrine now stands, supported by 
all the evidence of an unbroken chain of historic 
testimony such as sustains no other documents on 
earth, the miracles which have been wrought, and 
the prophecy which has been fulfilled, and is fulfill- 
ing before our eyes, the unexampled diffusion of a 
religion which is at war with all men's natural and 
corrupt inclinations, and in despite of all that 
threatened to make its success impossible, and the 
beneficial influence which it exerts upon individu- 

176 



GEOLOGY OF THE BIBLE. 



177 



als and communities. All this is not to be over- 
looked in a question which respects the truth of 
the history, and laws, and doctrines of the Bible. 
All this mass of evidence must be fairly set aside 
before any position can be established which could 
fasten upon that book the charge of untruth. The 
argument, then, which is with one fell swoop to 
banish revelation from the earth, and leave us to 
grope our way in the midnight darkness of unaided 
reason, is thus stated by Mr. Buckland. (Buck- 
land's Bridgewater Treatise, vol. L, pp. 22, 23) : 
" The enormous thickness and almost infinite sub- 
divisions of the stratified rocks, and with the num- 
erous and regular successions which they contain 
of the remains of animals and vegetables differing 
more and more widely from existing species as the 
strata in which we find them are placed at greater 
depths — the fact that a large proportion of these 
remains belong to extinct genera, and almost all of 
them to extinct species, that lived, multiplied, and 
died on or near the spots where they are now 
found, shows that the strata in which they occur 
were deposited slowly and gradually, during long 
periods of time and at widely distant intervals. 
These extinct animals and vegetables could, there- 
fore, have formed no part of the creation with which 
we are immediately connected." Here we have the 
facts and the conclusion ; but how they are con- 
nected remains a mystery. How long it requires to 
form these strata no man can tell ; and, therefore, 



- ' - 



no man knows that the nearly six thousand years 
of cur world's duration, and the creative power of 
the Almighty, are r. :: sufficient to account for 
them. The utter inconclusiveness of all such con- 
;ectures — for they are nothing more — is established 



vol. L pp. ifS. ifo : "Decisive as these facts are. 
i: has been attempted to set aside the Mosaic nar- 
rative by some alleged marks of antiquity which 
certain Continental philosophers have amrmed to 
exist in the strata of the lava of Mount Etna. 
Thus Count Berth has attempted to prove that 
volcanic mountain to be eight thousand years old, by 
:he different strata of lava which have been dis- 
covered. And in the vaults and pits which have 



" d 
■ea- 



:his orgume: 
...'-*„ - ^ — - ~ 



^tted to produce 
p eri: os : V. no 
= of any burning 
:: soy nothing of 



GEOLOGY OF THE BIBLE. 



179 



three or four thousand ? Who can say that the 
strata of the earth were formed in equal periods? 
The time for the formation of the uppermost and 
last is probably not known, much less the respective 
periods of the lower strata. They build one hy- 
pothesis upon another, and to believe their whole 
argument requires stronger faith than to believe a 
miracle. Faith in a miracle rests upon testimony, 
but faith in their scheme must be founded on an 
extreme desire to prove a falsehood. But the anal- 
ogy on which it has been attempted to build the 
hypothesis just mentioned is contradicted by 
another analogy which is grounded on more cer- 
tain facts. Etna and Vesuvius resemble each other 
in the causes that produce their eruptions, in the 
nature of their lava, and in the time necessary to 
mellow them into soil fit for vegetation. This be- 
ing admitted, which no philosopher will deny, the 
Canon Recupero's analogy will prove just nothing 
at all. We can produce an instance of seven different 
lavas, with interjacent strata of vegetable earth, which 
have flowed from Mount Vesuvius within the space, 
not of fourteen thousand, but of somewhat less 
than fourteen hundred years ; for these, according 
to our analogy, a stratum of lava may cover with 
vegetable soil in about two hundred and fifty years, 
instead of requiring two thousand for that purpose. 
The eruption of Vesuvius which destroyed Her- 
culaneum and Pompeii is rendered still more cele- 
brated by the death of the elder Pliny, recorded in 



v 



i8o 



SERMONS, 



his nephew's letter to Tacitus. This event happened 
A. D. 79 ; but we are informed by unquestionable au- 
thority that the matter which covers Herculaneum 
is not the produce of one eruption only, for there are 
evident marks that the matter of six eruptions has 
taken its course over that which lies immediately 
over the town, and which was the cause of its de- 
struction, and these strata are either of lava or of 
burnt matter, with veins of good soil between, whence 
it is evident with what ease a little attention and 
increase of knowledge many remove a great diffi- 
culty." 

The argument against the geologists from this 
extract is from the less to the greater. If profane 
civil history has silenced forever the conclusions of 
geology in the cases of Pompeii and Herculaneum, 
much more should the better authenticated history 
of the Old and New Testaments silence all similar 
calculations which are contradicted by its UNQUES- 
TIONABLE testimony. Indeed, Mr. Buckland him- 
self is conscious of the weakness of his argument 
from the different strata. He says : " Indeed, the 
mineral character of the inorganic matter of which 
the earth's strata are composed presents so similar a 
succession of beds of sandstone, clay, and limestone, 
repeated irregularly, not only in different but even 
in the same formations, that similarity of mineral 
composition is but an uncertain proof of contempo- 
raneous origin, while the surest test of identity of 
time is afforded by the correspondence of organic 



GEOLOGY OF THE BIBLE. 



181 



remains. In fact WITHOUT THESE the proofs of the 
lapse of such long periods as geology shows to have 
been occupied in the formation of the strata of the 
earth, would have been comparatively few and inde- 
cisive." — (p. 93.) When an anxious advocate ad- 
mits that the proofs which are adduced to sustain 
half his argument are comparatively few, undecisive, 
and uncertain, we may consider that part of it as 
abandoned, more especially when he himself fur- 
nishes conclusive reasons to overthrow its entirety. 
The argument from the strata is derived from their 
nature and locations ; and these, it seems, are re- 
peated irregularly, not only in different but in the 
same formations. How any regular or settled con- 
clusion can be drawn from such evidence requires 

" Optics sharp, I ween, 
Which see what is not to be seen." 

The argument upon which he relies is derived from 
the animal remains. And what is the argument? 
Why, the greater the depth of these strata, the more 
remains of unknown animals are found, and these 
have lived, and multiplied, and died where they are 
found. Hence, it is concluded that these unknown 
animals belonged to other worlds than ours. And 
yet it is admitted that some known animals are 
found in all the strata. But this is a conclusion 
drawn from ignorance not from knowledge. If it be 
asked, Why can not these remains belong to our 
world ? the answer is : We do not know them. And 
is it certain that geologists know all the beasts, 



l82 



SERMONS. 



fishes, birds, reptiles, and vegetables that have ex- 
isted since the creation of our present world, before 
and since the deluge in the days of Noah? If they 
say they do, I demand their proof ; for I don't be- 
lieve one word of the assertion, and I venture to 
say no human being but themselves does. If they 
say they do not know, I demand — How they know 
that these remains are not of precisely these un- 
known animals and vegetables ? Their whole argu- 
ment, then, terminates in darkness. It is like noth- 
ing in the shape of argument but that by which it 
was undertaken to prove that America was discov- 
ered by the Swedes, or some other nation than the 
Spaniards, before Columbus discovered it. Their 
argument was: " On a certain time, long before Co- 
lumbus, a certain vessel left one of their ports, and 
was never heard of again ; and if it did not go to 
America, where did it go ? Moreover, the argument 
is not only entirely baseless, but is entirely contra- 
dicted by the facts adduced by Mr. Buckland him- 
self, which are so far from contradicting the received 
doctrine of the church of God, that, like every other 
attempt to shake the foundations of the Christian 
faith, they h-ave only brought out into clearer view 
how impregnable they are. Those facts are, that 
human bones and whole skeletons have been found 
imbedded in solid limestone, and that human re- 
mains have been found mixed with the remains of 
unknown animals which geologists suppose to belong 
to worlds that existed millions of years before man 



GEOLOGY OF THE BIBLE. 



183 



had any being ; that remains of existing species of 
animals are found in the same strata and in the 
same circumstances with many belonging to the ear- 
liest species of unknown animals, and that these dis- 
covered species of unknown animals form interme- 
diate and connecting links between existing species 
in our present world. 

The obvious inference from these facts is, that if 
human bones and remains of unknown animals are 
found in the same stratum, they belong to the same 
period, but man and existing species belong to the 
present world ; therefore, these unknown animals 
belong to this present world also, and geology is 
entirely at fault. 

Again, the unknown animals form intermediate 
and connecting links between existing species ; 
therefore they belong to the same system, and it 
is contrary to all analogy, and contradictory to all 
we know of the wisdom of the Creator, to form 
several middle links in his chain of connected being, 
and throw them away before he formed those which 
preceded and followed them. The unity of design 
and connection of the parts, therefore, indicate that 
the whole work was contemporaneous ; but man 
confessedly, and the animals of existing species, 
belong properly to our present system, therefore so 
also do those discovered remains, and again geology 
is at fault, and the Bible history confirmed. 

Having stated the argument, I produce the 
facts, and out of their own mouths let presump- 



SERMONS. 



tuous oppugners of the Divine testimony be con- 
demned. 

I. Mr. Buckland says (p. 87) : " The most re- 
markable and only recorded case of skeletons im- 
bedded in a solid limestone rock, is that on the 
shore of Guadeloupe." One of these skeletons is 
preserved in the British Museum. According to 
Gen. Ernouf, the rock in which the human bones 
occur at Guadeloupe is composed of consolidated 
sand, and contains also shells of the species now in- 
habiting the adjacent sea and land, together with 
fragments of pottery, arrows, and hatchets of stone. 
The greater number of bones are dispersed. One 
entire skeleton was extended in the usual position 
of burial ; another^ which is in a softer sandstone, 
seemed to have been buried in the sitting position 
customary among the Caribs. The bodies thus dif- 
ferently interred may have belonged to two differ- 
ent tribes. Gen. Ernouf also explains the occur- 
rence of the scattered bones, by reference to a tra- 
dition of a battle and massacre on this spot, of a 
tribe of Gallibees, by the Caribs, about the year 
1710. The last account was published in 18 18, so 
that all that formation was produced in one hun- 
dred years. What may not have taken place in 
more than fifty times the period of time since our 
world began ? 

The second class of facts is thus stated (pp. 88, 
89) : " Several accounts have been published within 
the last few years, of human remains discovered in 



GEOLOGY OF THE BIBLE. 



the caverns of France, and the province of Liege, 
which are described as being of the same antiquity 
with the bones of hyenas and other extinct quadru- 
peds that accompany them." The author has seen 
at Liege a very extensive collection of fossil bones 
made by M. Schmerling in the caverns of that neigh- 
borhood, and has visited some of the places where 
they were found. Many of these bones appear to 
have been brought together, like those in the cave 
of Kirkdale, by the agency of hyenas, and have evi- 
dently been gnawed by those animals. " Mr. 
Schmerling expresses his opinion that these bones 
are coeval with those of the quadrupeds of extinct 
species found with them." Here, then, not only 
are the facts admitted which overturn the whole 
theory, but the highest geological authorities give 
their opinion that these extinct animals were co- 
existent with man ; and even Mr. Buckland admits 
that the bones of extinct species were gnawed by 
hyenas, which looks very like an admission of co- 
existence ; if not, then the hyenas existed first ! 
But hyenas and men belong to this present world, 
therefore so do these extinct animals. 

The third class of facts is, that remains have been 
discovered of extinct animals, accompanied by those 
of existing species. The remains of sivatherium 
were accompanied by those of the elephant, masto- 
don, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, several ruminantia, 
etc. (Pp. 75, 76) : " Even the eggs of aquatic birds 
have been preserved in the lacustrian formations of 



i86 



SERMONS. 



Cournon, in Auvergne. In the same eocene forma- 
tion with these eggs there were also the remains of 
two species of anoplotherium, a lophidodon, an an- 
thracotherium, a hippopotamus, a ruminating ani- 
mal, a dog, a marten, a lagomys, a rat, a cat, one or 
two tortoises, a crocodile, a serpent or lizard, and 
three or four species of birds " (p. 74). Now, if be- 
cause "the most ancient marine animals occur in 
the same division of the lowest transition strata 
with the earliest remains of vegetables, the evidence 
of organic remains, so far as it goes, shows the ori- 
gin of plants and animals to have been contempo- 
raneous " (p. 24), then, for the same reason, these 
extinct species of animals are contemporaneous with 
the dog, the marten, the rat, and the lizard. But 
these belong to the system which now is, therefore 
so also do those unknown animals. 

The fourth class of facts which overthrow the geo- 
logical argument, and confirm the doctrine of the 
Bible, is as follows : " It is stated that there is a 
wider difference between the living genera of the 
order pachydermata than between those of any 
other order of mammalia, and that many intervals 
in the series of these animals have been filled up by 
extinct genera and species discovered in strata of the 
tertiary series. The sivatherium forms an impor- 
tant addition to the extinct genera of this interme- 
diate and connecting character " (p. 76). " The sec- 
ond, or miocene system of tertiary deposits, con- 
tains an admixture of extinct genera of limestone 



GEOLOGY OF THE BIBLE. 



187 



mammalia of the first or eocene series, with the 
earliest forms of genera which exist at the present 
time. This admixture was first noticed by M. Des- 
noyers in the marine formation of the faluns of 
Lorraine, where the remains of paleotherium, an- 
thracotherium, and lophidodon, which formed the 
prevailing genera in the eocene, are found mixed 
with the bones of the tapir, mastodon, rhinoceros, 
horse, ox, bear, fox " (p. 78). "The study of these 
remains presents to the geologist a large amount of 
extinct species and genera, bearing important rela- 
tians to existing forms of animals and vegetables, 
and often supplying links that had hitherto appeared 
deficient in the great chain whereby all animated 
beings are held together in a series of near 'and 
gradual connections " (pp. 94, 95). The unity of 
design which these discoveries indicate proves that 
the whole chain was made at the same period, as it 
would be absurd to forge intermediate links and 
then throw them away before those which preceded 
and followed them were made. On that supposition 
there never was, and never can be, any connected 
chain of being. If links are wanting at either end, 
still there may be a connected chain ; but if they 
be wanting in the middle the chain is broken, its 
unity is gone. But, " since every individual in such 
a close and connected series is thus shown to be 
an integral part of one grand original design," it 
is clear that as the known animals belong to 
our present system, and the unknown belong to 



SERMONS. 



them, they also belong to the same system with 
man. 

Thus we have seen from the admixture of human 
bones, and those of existing animals in the same 
strata, with the remains of animals that were sup- 
posed to belong to other worlds, and from the fact 
that these unknown animals supply links that we*-e 
wanting in existing species, it is proved that man 
and all the other animals, known and unknown, 
belong to the same connected chain of concreated 
being. This has been shown to be the opinion of 
M. Schmerling and other geologists. 



IV. 



" Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed 
by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not 
made of things which do appear" — Heb. xi., 3. 



HIS book of nature, which some men would 



1 make out to be so much plainer than revela- 
tion direct from the true God, does not convey the 
same information to all who study it. The opinion; 
respecting the long days of the Mosaic creation has, 
been suggested, " both by learned theologians and. 
by geologists, and on grounds independent of one 
another " (p. 22). Now, as this scheme dispenses, 
with the world or worlds unnumbered of Mr. Buck- 
land's theory, these geologists could not have seen 
what he saw, in their common science. They, 
therefore, neutralize each other and prove that if 
we give up the sure testimony of the Divine word, 
we must be tossed upon the shoreless ocean of 
skepticism, without chart or compass, at the mercy 
of every wave. 

Dr. Chalmers has been triumphantly referred to 
as a witness for the scheme of Mr. Buckland. But 
while he says some things very unwisely on the 
question of interpretation, he would adopt that 
interpretation only hypothetically, on the supposi- 




ng 



190 



SERMOXS. 



tion that the geological discoveries are sufficient to 
bear their conclusion. In the same place, he speaks 
on the question of its truth in these words : u We 
may deny the truth of the geological speculation. Nor 
is it necessary to be an accomplished geologist that 
we may be warranted to deny it. We appeal to 
the speculations of the geologists themselves. 
They 7ieutralise one another, and leave us in posses- 
sion of free ground for the interpretion of the Old 
Testament. Our imaginations have been much 
regaled by the brilliancy of their speculations, but 
they are so opposite to each other that we now 
cease to be impressed by their evidence." — (Christ. 
E\\, Am. ed., p. 107.) Mr. Buckland's theory, 
then, is contradicted by geological facts, and the 
opinions of geologists by his witness Dr. Chalmers, 
and his friend Dr. Pusey, who says that " the word 
asa, to make, and bara, to create, are synonymous ; 
but that bara is the stronger." " Bara and asa ex- 
press alike a formation of something new (de nozv), 
something whose existence in this new state origi- 
nated in, and depends entirely upon, the will of its 
Creator or Maker " (p. 28). But Mr. Buckland says, 
when God made the sun, and moon, and stars, he 
did not form anything new ; he only showed these 
luminaries by clearing away tlie fog! And finally, 
he caps the climax of absurdity by contradicting 
himself. He says : " Asa, made, may be here em- 
ployed (Ex. xx., 1 1) to express a new arrangement of 
materials that existed before" (p. 35); and yet, 



GEOLOGY OF THE BIBLE. 191 



when the sun was said to be made on the fourth 
day, there was no new arrangement of the materials 
that existed before it remained unchanged. 

The scheme, then, is one of contradiction and 
absurdity throughout. It is a matter of lamenta- 
tion, though not of wonder, that those who are too 
wise to be taught by the oracles of God should be 
given up, in righteous judgment, to an implicit 
faith in such lying oracles as these. 

To show that I am not alone in my views on this 
subject, I give a few extracts from writers of the 
highest character. Dr. Chalmers, on whose au- 
thority Mr. Buckland and Prof. Hitchcock seem 
greatly to rely, speaks on this very subject : " Of 
the contest between the cause of revelation on the 
one hand, and the infidelity of the geological schools 
upon the other," and says " that the historical evi- 
dence of Scripture is quite untouched by those 
pretended discoveries of natural science," (Hitch., 
pp. 232, 233.) And again: " We should not 
tamper with the record by allegorizing any of its 
passages or phrases. We should not, for example, 
protract the six days into so many geological 
periods ; as if, by means of a lengthened natural pro- 
cess, to veil over the fiat of a God, the phenomenon 
— if we may so term it — which, of all others, seems 
most offensive to the taste of some philosophers, 
and which they are most anxious to get rid of. 
We hold the week of the first chapter of Genesis to 
be literally a week of miracles." (Id., p. 331.) 



192 



SERMONS. 



Nicholson's Encyclopedia refers all fossil remains 
to the antediluvian world, and the changes of 
our globe recorded in the sacred Scriptures : " By 
this science we obtain not only a knowledge of 
the peculiar beings which dwelt on this planet, 
in its antediluvian state, but we also acquire a 
more correct knowledge of the structure of this 
globe itself. We at the same time discover the 
strongest proofs of those changes which it has 
suffered, and which are recorded in the holy Scrip- 
tures, whilst our reverential admiration is excited at 
this wonderful display of the power and providence 
of the Almighty Creator." — Xich. Encyc, vol. 9, 
art. Oryctology. 

The last I shall quote at this time is Dr. Dick, 
late Professor of Theology in the United Secession 
Church, of Scotland, one of the most accomplished 
theologians and scholars of the age. He says (vol. 
2., Edinburgh edition, pp. 218, 219) : " But here we 
are encountered by the pretended discoveries of 
modern science, and the observations which have 
been made upon the structure of the earth are sup- 
posed to contradict the Mosaic account, by proving 
that it must have existed at a more distant period, 
if it was created at all, and that it must have under- 
gone many revolutions prior to what we call the 
beginning. Some reject the account of Moses en- 
tirely ; and others conceive that it tells us, not of 
the original creation of the earth, but of the changes 
which took place upon it after some terrible convul- 



GEOLOGY OF THE BIBLE. 



193 



sion. Thus, according to the words of a celebrated 
poet, 

' Some drill and bore 
The solid earth, and from the strata then 
Extract a register, from which we learn 
That He who made it, and revealed its date 
To Moses, was mistaken in its age.' 

— Cowper's • Task,' book 3. 

This is manifestly a subject beyond the reach of 
our faculties; and geology, as sometimes conducted, 
is a monument of human presumption, which would 
be truly ridiculous, were it not offensive by its im- 
piety. " Where wast thou/ said the Almighty to 
Job, ' when I laid the foundations of the earth? 
Declare, if thou hast understanding. ' — Job xxxviii., 4. 
Our philosophers do not pretend to have been pres- 
ent when the earth was founded, but they profess 
to show us how it was made, and that a much longer 
period was necessary to form its rocks and its strata 
than the Scriptures assign. Thus puny mortals, 
with a spark of intellect, and a moment for observa- 
tion, during which they take a hasty glance of a few 
superficial appearances, deem themselves authorized 
to give the lie to Him who made and fashioned 
them, and everything which they see. It happens, 
however, that forsaking the only safe guide in such 
high speculations, and following the faint and de- 
ceitful light of reason, they wander in the mazes 
of error and uncertainty. Their theories are differ- 
ent : what one builds up, another destroys ; and 
amidst the conflicts of opinions, all equally false, 



i 9 4 



SERMONS. 



the narrative of Moses stands unmoved, like the 
rock amidst the waves, resting on the solid basis 
of all the proofs by which the genuineness and in- 
spiration of his writings are demonstrated. ' From 
the endless discordance in the opinions of philoso- 
phers on this point,' says a learned professor, 1 from 
the manifest inadequacy of the data we are at pre- 
sent in possession of ; and from the physical impos- 
sibilities which must forever be a bar to anything 
more than a superficial knowledge of the earth's 
structure, it is preposterous to suppose that that 
high degree of moral evidence on which the credi- 
bility of Scripture rests can, with any justice, be 
weakened by our interpretation of phenomena, the 
connection of which among themselves even we 
certainly are at present, and probably ever shall be, 
incapable of explaining.' 

" The vanity of the reasoning of modern geologists 
may be manifest, and the bases of their theories over- 
turned, in a very easy way. They talk of primitive 
formations, and ascribe the origin of rocks to preci- 
pitation and crystallization. 

" Looking at a piece of granite from the mountains, 
they point out the characters of aqueous or igneous 
fusion, and say that it was formed by the agency of 
water or fire, carried on through a long process, 
which it required ages to complete. It is not denied 
that the substance might have been produced by 
the laws of chemistry ; but is it certain that it was 
so produced ? These laws are at present operating 



GEOLOGY OF THE BIBLE. 



i9S 



throughout our world ; but, if it was not eternal, 
they must have had a commencement. Why may 
we not suppose that their Author anticipated their 
operation, and immediately created substances of 
such a structure or composition, as would have 
resulted from them in the natural order? Why 
may we not suppose that he made rocks at first 
such as they would have been made by precip- 
itation and crystallization ? No geologist can 
deny that the thing was possible, unless he be an 
atheist, and then we have nothing to do with him 
or his theory; and, if it was possible, his argument 
from primitive formations, against the compara- 
tively modern date of the earth, vanishes into smoke. 
We say that, although certain substances might 
have been produced by secondary causes, God 
could and did produce them at once. That there 
was a first man, will be denied by none but an 
atheist. Now, if we were in possession of one of 
his bones, we should find that in all respects it re- 
sembled the bones of his posterity ; and reasoning 
according to the geologists, should conclude that 
at first its forms were soft, that they gradually be- 
came cartilage, and last of all acquired the hardness 
of their perfect state. But we should reason false, 
for that bone was made solid and firm in a moment. 
If we saw one of the first trees, we should perceive 
no difference between it and a tree of more recent 
date. On being cut across, it would exhibit the 
same folds or circles, indicating the growth of sue- 



196 



SERMONS* 



cessive years, and increasing in hardness as they 
were nearer to the center. The theory of the geol- 
ogists would justify us in maintaining that it had 
originally sprung from a seed, and required many 
years to bring it to maturity ; while the fact 
would be, that it was the work of an instant. In 
both cases we have all the apparent effects of the 
processes of ossification and lignification, while it is 
certain that the processes never took place. We 
have, therefore, demonstration of the authority of a 
a rule that has been laid down, and effectually des- 
troys all the geological systems which represent 
second causes as being immediately concerned in the 
formation of our earth, in this, that sensible pheno- 
mena can not alone determine the mode of forma- 
tion. We have no occasion to convert each of Moses' 
days into thousands of years, and to conceive the 
chaos as an immense laboratory, from which, after 
the operations of ages, the earth came forth as we 
now see it. There was a Power adequate to create 
it at once, which formed the primeval rocks without 
the aid of fire and water, as it made perfect bones 
and perfect trees, independently of the second 
causes by which they are at produced." 

I have endeavored, in humble dependence on the 
aid of the Creator of the worlds, the God of the 
Bible, to show that the present is a question of faith 
in the history, laws, and doctrines of the Divine word, 
that the received doctrine of the church is required 
by the uniform meaning of the passages which relate 



GEOLOGY OF THE BIBLE. 



197 



to this subject, and that the meaning attempted to 
be forced upon them by the theories of geologists 
renders them unutterably absurd, and unworthy of 
Moses or any other man of understanding — to say 
nothing of the Spirit of inspiration ; that the reasons 
given for the new interpretation are futile, and that 
there is irreconcilable contradiction between these 
theories and the Bible. I have examined the ques- 
tion as an argument against the Bible, which it is the 
main design of the authors of these theories to dis- 
prove, and shown that their arguments are baseless 
and their theories contradicted by their own facts, 
by one another, by their own authorities, and by 
themselves, and that the wisest men in the different 
departments of science, literature, and theology have 
denounced these theories as unfounded, presump- 
tuous, and impious. 

Christians, guard with sleepless vigilance and jeal- 
ous care the sacred trust committed to your care in 
the holy Scriptures. "Whereto we have already 
attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind 
the same things." Frown upon all attempts to 
tamper with the oracles of God, to force them to 
speak a language abhorrent to their obvious and 
necessary meaning. " Have no fellowship with the 
unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove 
them." Arrayed in the panoply of God, stand fast 
in the evil day, and drive back to their dens the 
demons of infidelity and heresy, under whatever 
specious forms they may appear. The louder the 



SERMONS. 



tempest howls about your heads, cling the closer to 
the rock of your salvation, the sure testimony of 
Him who can not be deceived and who will not lie. 
Pray to the " Author and Finisher of your faith that 
you may be strong in the faith, giving glory to God." 
M Finally, brethren, I commend you to God and to 
the word of his grace, which is able to build you up 
and to give you an inheritance among all them 
which are sanctified." Live by faith, walk by faith, 
so shall you triumph by faith ; and when the heavens 
and the earth flee away, and no place is found for 
them, you will find your places at the right hand of 
the everlasting throne, in His " presence, where is 
fulness of joy, and at his right hand, where are 
pleasures for evermore." 

Reader, learn from this subject how impregnable 
are the bulwarks of the Christian faith. It has been 
assailed in every age, in every form which the sub- 
tlety of Satan and wicked men can devise ; and it 
has survived every attack, with not merely undi- 
minished, but increased, manifestation of its truth. 
A system of religious truth so established, and hav- 
ing passed unhurt through so many fiery ordeals, 
evinces the full and unwavering confidence of all to 
whom the knowledge of it comes. If it had been 
possible to disprove the truth of the Bible, it must 
have been disproved long before now ; for, from its 
very origin, it has had to wage unceasing warfare 
with talent, and learning, and wealth, and power, and 
all the utter unbelief and enmity of fallen man, and 



GEOLOGY OF THE BIBLE. 



199 



the artifice and malignity of Satan, the god of this 
world, " who blinds the minds of them that believe 
not, lest the light of the knowledge of the glory of 
God in the face of Jesus Christ should shine into 
them." Embark, then, your eternal interest upon 
that truth. There is nothing on earth more sure. 
Nothing but faith in these precious records, and 
humble reliance on that Divine and compassionate 
Saviour whom they reveal, can give true peace to 
your spirit here, or assure you of a blissful immor- 
tality when time shall be no more. 



THE CHERUBIM. 



" So he drove out the man : and he placed at the east of the 
garden of Eden Cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned 
every way, to keep the way of the tree of life." — Genesis hi., 24. 

THE day that man was banished from the home 
of his innocency was full of unutterable sorrow. 
He had thrown away the favor of his God, and the 
happiness of himself and his race. He had begun 
to taste the bitterness of that cup which the tempter 
had put to his lips. The holiness, justice, and truth 
of God, in awful majesty, were asserting their claims 
upon him. But although distressed, he is not in 
despair, for mercy also is prominent in the manifes- 
tation of the Divine character, and another and a 
brighter light bursts upon the moral chaos into 
which sin had thrown the fairest creation of God. 
In the same breath which announced to the com- 
bined offenders their appropriate punishments, is 
revealed the surety of the new Covenant, and salva- 
tion in him : " He shall bruise thy head, and thou 
shalt bruise his heel." This was the dawning of 
gospel light, the great first promise, the germ of 
boundless grace and endless glory to a multitude 
that no man can number. In beautiful analogy 
with that revelation is the symbol by which is 

200 



THE CHERUBIM. 



20I 



exhibited the hopelessness of man's condition by 
the first covenant, and his restoration to the favor 
and fellowship of his reconciled God by the sec- 
ond — the flaming sword, which turned everyway to 
keep the way of the tree of life, presenting, in most 
impressive form, the impossibility of attaining to 
the life promised in the first covenant, of which the 
tree of life was the seal, and the cherubim opening 
a door of hope, through the second, by exhibiting 
redeemed man in the attitude of an accepted wor- 
shiper, the ambassador of God to man, and the 
leader and representative of his people to God. 
Thus are embodied in striking emblem the dis- 
abilities and doom of the covenant of works, and the 
privileges and duties of the covenant of grace. 

First. There is no salvation now by the first cove- 
nant. 

Second. The cherubim embody the scheme of 
salvation through the surety of the New Covenant 
as administered by the officers of his church. 

I. That the tree of life was a seal of the cove- 
nant of works made with Adam, the representative 
of our race, is evident from its mention in connec- 
tion with that covenant, its name, the expectations 
of fallen man respecting it, and this prohibition of 
its use, now that the constitution to which it be- 
longed is made void or broken, and its threatened 
penalty incurred. When by the entrance of sin, 
salvation became impossible by the work of the 
law, it became the Divine faithfulness and mercy 



202 



SERMONS. 



to forbid all fruitless and ruinous attempts to obtain 
it in that way. And the strong propensity of man, 
ever since, to seek to be justified by the works of 
the law, has abundantly shown that the prohibition 
was not without cause. It was a part of his moral 
constitution, as he came out of the hands of his Crea- 
tor ; and although now in ruins, it knows no other 
way, and is incapable of knowing it, until made new 
by the power of Almighty grace. For as it is an im- 
portant truth, " by the deeds of the law, there shall 
no flesh be justified in his sight," that other is like 
unto it, " Ye must be born again." 

The great Physician probes, that he may effect a 
thorough cure. He shows our wounds, that he may 
heal us. He makes us know our ruin, that we may 
greet with cordial welcome the remedy which, in 
his wisdom and mercy, he has provided in the Son 
of his love. 

2. The principal subject to which attention is 
invited is the cherubim, the .symbol of redeemed 
man in fellowship with his reconciled God, giving 
him the glory due unto his name, enjoying his 
favor and doing his will. The cherubim and sera- 
phim are but different names for the same com- 
pound animal figures described by Isaiah, Ezekiel 
and John. It is the hieroglyphic for the ministry 
of reconciliation, under every dispensation of the 
covenant of grace, and therefore of that covenant 
itself, in its privileges and fruits, in the glorious 
communion of God with redeemed, regenerated, 



THE CHERUBIM. 



203 



saved man, to bless him with his love here, and fit 
him for his glory hereafter. The figure itself ex- 
presses the ministry ; its office, fellowship with God. 

Who then are the cherubim ? What their char- 
acter, and what their office ? 

First. That the cherubim means the ministry of 
reconciliation appears from the context, and the 
uniform usage of sacred writ.* 

From the connection of the text. It was evidently 
the Divine intention to call Adam to the duties of 
faith and hope, in the uttering of the first promise, 
that, while the pronouncing of the righteous sentence, 
which he had incurred by his sin, should cut off all 
hopes from anything in himself, this new promise 
might lead to trust in the righteousness of God. 
So, when the holy providence of God begins to ac- 
complish his purposes, and man is expelled the 
happy abode of innocency, and his return forever 
debarred, it was fit that his sinking spirit should be 
sustained and comforted by a sign of the Divine 
forgiveness and salvation, in the way of his own 
devising. Such sign was given him in the cheru- 
bim. Besides, if the sword were only the instru- 
ment which the cherubim used, it would have read 
with instead of and. As it is, the signs are different 

* Kerub, for Karob, is one near to God, his minister, one ad- 
mitted to his presence. Seraphim — princes, nobles of the pres- 
ence, admitted near to the great King — denote first the minis- 
try, and then the whole church, made kings and priests unto 
God, chosen, and caused to approach unto him. 



204 



SERMONS. 



and distinct. And so are the things signified. 
Moreover, were the sword wielded by the cherubim, 
it would express a part of the duty of the ministry 
to drive men by the sword of the Spirit, which is 
the word of God, from the ruinous attempt to ob- 
tain salvation by the deeds of the law. The dim 
outline of revelation given us in the first part of the 
book of God is afterwards more clearly defined and 
more distinctly filled up. The next place in which 
the cherubim are introduced is in the description 
of the ark of the covenant, Exodus xxv., 18, etc. 
These, in the tabernacle and afterwards in the 
temple, i Kings vi., 23, etc., were made by Divine 
appointment, and from the places which they occu- 
pied, the attitudes they were made to assume, and 
the presence of Jehovah in the cloud of glory in 
the midst of them, do represent in an impressive 
manner the communion which the God of Israel 
condescends to hold with his ministering servants 
and his worshiping people. To this there is 
allusion in the 80th and 99th Psalms, " Thou that 
dwellest between the cherubim, shine forth and 
" He sitteth between the cherubim ; let the earth be 
moved." 

As the vehicle of the declarative glory of God, it 
is introduced, 2 Samuel xxii., 11 : " He rode upon a 
cherub. 7 ' And is not the church, and, by eminence, 
the ministry, to the moral, what the sun is to the 
natural world, the instrument, the vehicle of con- 
veying the knowledge of the glory of God to the 



THE CHERUBIM. 



205 



ends of the earth ? " Ye are the light of the 
world." 

The seraphim of Isaiah (6th chapter) is evidently 
but another name for the same representation which 
we afterwards have with particularity given us in 
Ezekiel, 1st and 10th chapters. It is a compound 
animal figure, made up of the faces of the lion, the 
ox, the man, and the eagle, the body of the man, 
and the foot of the ox or bullock, covered with 
wings and full of eyes within and without. The 
words were used without explanation before, because 
the Israelites who came from Egypt were familiar 
with hieroglyphics, and to them and some of the 
succeeding generations the terms would be per- 
fectly intelligible. In later times it seemed good 
to the Holy Spirit to explain in moral painting 
the terms, and their signification. The occasion of 
Isaiah's vision is his call to the work of the minis- 
try, verse 9 : " Go and tell this people, Hear ye 
indeed, but understand not," etc. The vision of 
Ezekiel is on a similar occasion, and both are evi- 
dently intended to illustrate, in the peculiar style of 
prophecy, the office and duty of the prophets them- 
selves. 

Ezekiel compares the king of Tyre to the cherub, 
because glittering with gold and glory. — xxviii., 14. 
On this, as on every other subject of Divine revela- 
tion, the light increases, from its earliest dawn to its 
meridian brightness. John, the beloved disciple, 
whose revelation completes the only infallible rule 



206 



SERMONS. 



of faith and practice, was favored with sublime and 
beautiful visions of the Holy Spirit. In the 4th 
and 9th chapters, he describes the various orders of 
the creatures, in full chorus, celebrating the high 
praises of God and of the Lamb. In alternate 
parts, they sing the heavenly song, but the leading 
and most peculiar strain belongs to the church of 
the redeemed, who strike their harps to a theme 
emphatically their own ; while nearest the throne 
and first in song appear the cherubim, the same 
that Ezekiel saw, the emblematic representation of 
the Christian ministry. Next, in concentric circles, 
the elders, the representatives of the churches ; and 
next, the ministering angels. The anthem begins 
with those whose office brings them nearest the 
throne, and is caught up by the church of the 
redeemed. The angels of light utter their glad 
response, and onward through all the ranks of 
creation and to the utmost verge of the universe 
rolls the enrapturing sound. 

Who are those that act the leading part in that 
splendid theater, whose place is nearest to the King 
Eternal ? Whatever darkness may have rested upon 
the subject before, there can be none now. They 
can not be the Trinity ; for the Trinity is the wor- 
shiped, not the worshiper. They can not be the 
angels ; for the angels forma distinct class, occupy a 
different place, and sing another song. They are a 
part of the redeemed from among men, who lead in 
the worship of the church, which the Lord Jesus 



THE CHERUBIM, 



207 



has purchased with his own blood, and in proclaim- 
ing the praises of the Triune God. And to none 
other can all these things belong, but to the ministry 
of reconciliation. The ascertained meaning of a form 
of speech is not to be departed from without neces- 
sity; much less when such meaning gives consist- 
ency, beauty, and force to all the passages in which 
the form of expression occurs. 

The view of the cherubim which has been given 
is in keeping with the usual manner of the Holy 
Spirit in the Scriptures. The revelation made to 
man gives but few and passing notices respecting the 
angels, and is occupied mainly in describing the 
relations, duties, and privileges of man ; while it 
strictly forbids any images of God. The cherubim 
therefore can not mean the Trinity, for that were to 
do, in the temple of Jehovah and by his own com- 
mandment, what he has strictly forbidden, on pain 
of his utmost displeasure. It can not mean the 
angels, for it is more important for man to be 
taught his own duty, than the duty of angels : be- 
sides, to make representations of angels in the Holy 
of Holies would have encouraged the worshiping 
of angels, to which men have ever been too prone. 
Moreover, the cherubim which sustained the brazen 
sea, and the lavers of Solomon, do aptly represent 
the labors of the ministry in promoting the sancti- 
fication of men, a work which belongs not to the 
angels. 

Thus have we seen, from the first in Eden to the 



208 



SERMONS. 



last in Patmos, that the cherubim of Moses and 
Ezekiel describe the same appearance with the 
seraphim of Isaiah and the living creatures of John, 
and that their meaning is one, the MINISTERS OF RE- 
LIGION, for themselves and others in communion 
with God their Saviour. This view will be still 
further confirmed while we consider, in the second 
place : 

What is the character of these men of God, as 
described in the heavenly vision? This sublime 
and highly figurative description comprehends their 
relations and qualifications for their work. 

I. They are relatively and by way of eminence 
holy unto the Lord, consecrated by the Divine ap- 
pointment to draw especially near to him. Bearing 
a delegated authority from the great Mediator of 
the new covenant, they occupy the middle place 
between God and man, representatives and leaders 
of men to God in acts of worship, and ambassadors 
of God to men in announcing his will. Thus the 
cherubim were nearest the throne and led the praise 
of all the saved. The priests were appointed to offer 
the sacrifices of the people. The priest's lips should 
keep knowledge, and they should learn the law 
at his mouth. Thus " Moses and Aaron amongst 
his priests, Samuel with them that call upon his 
name ; they called on God and he answered them 
" Son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the 
house of Israel ; therefore thou shalt hear the 
word at my mouth, and warn them from me." 



THE CHERUBIM. 



They were also commissioned to bless the people : 
" Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, On 
this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel, saying 
unto them, The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: 
The Lord make his face to shine upon thee, and 
be gracious unto thee : the Lord lift up his coun- 
tenance upon thee, and give thee peace." — Num. vL 
23-26. And under the New Testament economy, 
Peter says : " We will give ourselves to prayer and 
to the ministry of the word." And Paul : " Now 
then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God 
did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead 
be ye reconciled to God." To discharge a duty so 
important, to bear upon him the interests of the 
people, as the High Priest bore upon his breast- 
plate the names of the tribes when he went into the 
Holy of Holies to present their offerings, and to 
speak for God to men on the great concerns of 
their eternal state, require such qualifications and 
endowments, that even the apostle of the Gentiles 
exclaims, " Who is sufficient for these things ?" 

2. What then are the characteristics of those 
who draw near to God ? In the revelation of John 
is a description of those emblematic animals cor- 
responding with that of Ezekiel and called by him 
the cherubim, and by both, living creatures, every 
part of which describes something essential to the 
character of the workman, that needeth not to 
be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth : 
" And in the midst of the throne, and round about 



2IO 



SERMONS. 



the throne were four beasts (living creatures) full 
of eyes before and behind. And the first beast 
(living creature) was like a lion, and the second 
beast like a calf, (a young bullock) and the third 
beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast 
was like a flying eagle. And the four beasts had 
each of them six wings about him, and they 
were full of eyes within: and they rest not day 
and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God 
Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come." — 
Rev. iv., 6, 7, 8. The earliest form of written lan- 
guage was probably that of hieroglyphics, in which, 
by a representation of sensible objects, were con- 
veyed analogous ideas of moral and spiritual and 
immaterial things. The Egyptian inscriptions on 
their temples and monuments are partly of this 
character, and partly of the next step in the pro- 
gress of written language, the signs of sounds. On 
this principle the Chinese language is supposed to 
be constructed. The next step was to the arbitrary 
signs of elemental sounds, which form the alphabet 
in most written languages. The visions of the 
prophets seem to be of the character of the first 
form ; the analogy between the sign and the signi- 
fied is therefore obvious. From Moses to John 
they have recorded, with more than historical accu- 
racy, the writing which the spirit of inspiration had 
inscribed upon the tablet of their minds. Some- 
times they add a note of explanation, but generally 
leave the future to explain itself. In explaining a 



THE CHERUBIM. 



211 



complete subject, various figures are used to express 
its various aspects, on the same principle that the 
whole ceremonial code was a pictorial representa- 
tion of the way of salvation through our Lord 
Jesus Christ. The principle is retained in the ordi- 
nances of baptism and the Lord's Supper under the 
present dispensation. 

(i) These living creatures are full of eyes, before 
and behind. This indicates the great vigilance 
which ministers ought to exercise as watchmen 
upon the walls of Zion. The popular opinion is 
that ministers should have no eyes. To see and 
give warning of the coming enemy in the shape of 
errors which artful men privily bring in, is branded 
with the reproachful names of bigotry and heresy- 
hunting. But the mawkish delicacy which will not 
endure that the ways of those who corrupt the 
truth of God should be exposed, is itself one of 
the worst forms of evil ; a practical heresy, which 
shields every other, until it is prepared openly to 
trample the truth in the dust. The watchman en- 
trusted with the safety of the city, who should 
see the enemy coming and neglect to give warning* 
would be guilty of their ruin ; and it would avail 
him nothing to aver that he did not like to dis- 
turb their repose. In relation to every one who 
is lost under such circumstances, the decision of 
Jehovah is already given. " His blood will I re- 
quire at the watchman's hand." This vigilance is 
one of the most important qualifications of the 



212 



SERMONS. 



Christian ministry, and perhaps never more neces- 
sary than at present, when so many with fair words 
and fine speeches are deceiving the hearts of the 
simple. But this watchfulness is not only exer- 
cised in every direction from which danger may 
come externally, but they are full of eyes within. 
He that is not duly concerned about his own eternal 
interests will not be concerned aright about those 
of others. He that knows not the grace of God 
in truth in his own heart cannot be properly con- 
cerned for the salvation of others. And his fidel- 
ity can not be depended on in a day of trial. 
Take heed to thyself and to thy doctrine, for in so 
doing thou shalt both save thyself and them that 
hear thee. If it is the duty of all Christians to 
watch and pray, lest they enter into temptation, it 
is eminently the duty of Christian ministers, who 
are accountable not only for their own souls, but 
also for the souls of others. How fearful the 
guilt, how awful the approaching doom of those 
dumb dogs, sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber 
while the wolves are coming in and devouring the 
flock. Indeed the most conscientious, and prudent, 
and watchful ministers will have reason, when they 
see the dangers which beset their souls, and the 
souls of those committed to their charge, to ex- 
claim with the Apostle, " Who is sufficient for 
these things ? " 

(2) Boldness and courage, of which the lion is 
an obvious emblem : " The first beast was like a 



THE CHERUBIM. 



213 



lion." This is a very necessary qualification of 
those who are to lead the sacramental host of God's 
elect against the powers of darkness. Add to your 
faith virtue, or courage, as the word means in 
classic and scriptural use. To resist the various 
influences which are brought to bear by the world, 
the flesh, and the devil against the cause of pure 
and undefiled religion, requires in the Christian 
minister an eminent degree of moral courage. An 
easy complaisance, which yields to every influence 
that claims to direct him, will lead himself and his 
people into many a snare, from which they may 
never escape. But to set himself firmly and de- 
cidedly against every departure from duty, however 
alluring the temptation may be to indulge it, — 
against every defection from the truth of the Gos- 
pel, under whatever plausible pretenses it may be 
inculcated, — against enemies in his own breast, in 
the church, and in the world, whatever pains or 
hazard may be incurred, and against all the devices 
of Satan, whether secret suggestions or open rage 
and persecution, requires a lion-like boldness which 
can only be derived from the spirit of power and of 
might which, teaching us to fear God supremely, 
delivers from the dominion of every other fear. 
This attribute of ministerial character is also called 
for at this time. Although we are not required to 
attest our courage in the flames of martyrdom, as 
in former times it was required of those who fol- 
lowed Christ, and as may occur again, yet a strict 



214 



SERMONS. 



and conscientious adherence to the law and to the 
testimony, in doctrine, duty, worship, discipline and 
government, will subject to many dangers and 
difficulties from the secret foes and timid friends of 
truth and holiness, and from that spurious liberality 
which, confounding all distinction between truth 
and error, and throwing its shield over all, treats as 
enemies to religion all whose zeal for the Lord of 
Hosts impels them to pursue the enemies of their 
God to their retreat, behind its formidable aegis. 

(3) The next attribute of ministerial character 
is shadowed forth in the second living creature, like 
a calf or bullock. This is the symbol of patient, 
persevering labor iousness, a very essential character- 
istic of a good minister of Jesus Christ. Whatever 
may be the gifts of the pastor of a Christian church, 
and whatever his piety, it is clearly impossible that 
he should discharge his various and arduous duties, 
reproving, rebuking, exhorting with all long-suffer- 
ing and doctrine, preaching publicly, and from 
house to house, instructing the ignorant, confirming 
the wavering, and convincing the gainsayers, giving 
to every one his portion in the due season, rightly 
dividing the word of truth, increasing his own 
acquaintance with the Holy Scriptures, that he may 
bring out his treasures, things new and old, provid- 
ing not only that himself and his congregation may 
grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord and 
Saviour Jesus Christ, but also that the Gospel may 
be presented, in the supremacy of its authority and 



THE CHERUBIM. 



215 



in the amplitude of its provisions for the supply of 
every human want, to them that are without, earing 
and laboring for the welfare of all the churches and 
seeking by every proper means to be a worker 
together with God in promoting that kingdom 
which is righteousness, and peace, and joy in the 
Holy Ghost, to the ends of the earth, and to the 
end of time — it is clearly impossible that he should 
meet all these incessant drafts upon him without 
the most diligent and painstaking labor. An indo- 
lent minister is an unfaithful minister. Eternal 
interests are suffering by his neglect, and the doom 
of the slothful and wicked servant will be his. 

(4) Wisdom and prudence are indicated by 
the third living creature, which had a face as a 
man. This is an emblem of the important attribute 
of wisdom, to know how the minister ought to con- 
duct himself in the house of God. The Lord has 
given man more understanding than the beasts of 
the field, and made him wiser than the fowls of 
the heavens. The face of the man indicates the 
superior intelligence and wisdom with which it 
becomes him to be endowed, into whose hands are 
committed the most important interests and the 
most difficult affairs. Boldness, strength, and labor, 
unless wisely directed, will do evil and not good. 
The basis of this qualification must be the gift of 
the Author of our nature, in the original constitu- 
tion of the mind. The want of a well-balanced 
mind is incurable, and unfits its subject entirely for 



2l6 



SERMONS. 



the gospel ministry, whatever other qualifications 
he may have, and in whatever degree. But while 
a good understanding is indispensable, it needs 
cultivation and instruction. The ambassador of 
Christ must understand his instructions, which are 
the whole word of God. This requires reading and 
study. The revelation of God was not intended to 
supersede the use of the understanding, and its 
improvement by study and education ; but to aid 
both, by affording such data as are nowhere else 
to be found. Paul's advice to Timothy is worthy 
of all observance : " Give attention to reading, to 
exhortation, to doctrine ; give thyself wholly to 
them; that thy profiting may appear unto all." 
Thus only can the minister of Christ adapt his 
instructions to the various circumstances, characters, 
and wants of his people, know how to speak a word 
in season to them that are weary, to array every 
soldier of the Cross in the panoply of God, and 
train them to its use ; while from the armory of 
Heaven he brings forth those weapons of his war- 
fare which are mighty through God to the pulling 
down of strongholds, casting down imaginations, 
and every high thing that exalteth itself against 
the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity 
every thought to the obedience of Christ. " In 
malice be ye children, but in understanding be 
men." 

The fourth living creature was like a flying 
eagle. This is the symbol of that ardent piety, 



THE CHERUBIM. 



217 



/ 

those elevated views and principles, those high- and 
spiritual aims, which should distinguish the man 
whose office leads him to live, habitually, fast by the 
throne of God. The groveling pleasures of sense, 
in which man is inferior to the brute, the sordid love 
of self, the too common idolatry of the world, and 
the low ambition of gaining the honor that cometh 
from man, are incompatible with the pure and ele- 
vated pleasures enjoyed in the service of the high 
and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, the incorrup- 
tible, undefiled, and unfading inheritance of the 
saints, and the holy aspirings after the favor and 
fellowship of the King Eternal, the God of glory. 
The true minister abhors the carnal mind which is 
death, while he exemplifies, in a high degree, the 
spiritual-mindedness which is life and peace : with 
eagle flight he soars above the littleness of earthly 
views, and employed about the throne of the great 
King, he shines with some of his reflected glory, like 
the face of Moses descending from the mount. 

And the four living creatures had each of them 
six wings about him. In the parallel passage in 
Isaiah vi., it is added, " with twain he covered 
his feet, and with twain he covered his face, and 
with twain he did fly." This emblem teaches the 
humility and yet the promptness with which the 
ministers of Christ should do. his will. While, in 
the presence of his glory, their persons and services 
are not worthy to be seen, with eager delight they 
stand ready to fly to the performance of any service 



218 



SERMONS. 



to which he may call them. Thus cordially, 
promptly, and fully do they make haste, and delay 
not to keep all his commandments. 

Third. The duties of the Christian ministry, and of 
the church in fellowship with them, are taught in 
this representation. 

They proclaim the declarative glory of the Triune 
God. " And they rest not day and night, saying, 
Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty, which was, 
and is, and is to come." They act as the High 
Priest of the Universe offering up to the only living 
and true God the glory due unto his name. The 
threefold ascriptions of praise to God, in which the 
visions of John and Isaiah agree, imply the doctrine 
of the Trinity, and give to each Divine person, in 
the unity of the Godhead, the honor due, according 
to the parts they act respectively in the economy of 
grace — to the Father, the glory of devising the plan, 
and giving the Son ; to the Son, the glory of hum- 
bling himself to the death of the cross for us, of his 
condescension, and grace, and love ; and to the 
Holy Ghost the glory of his communion, by which 
he imparts to the heirs of blessedness the enjoy- 
ment of the purchased salvation. This corresponds 
with the ordinance of baptism in the name of the 
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, by 
which is exhibited and sealed the salvation of the 
sinner, by the emblem of the washing of regenera- 
tion and renewing of the Holy Ghost, shed on us 
abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour ; and 



THE CHERUBIM. 



219 



with the Apostolic benediction, " The grace of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the 
communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all." 

All thy works praise thee and thy saints bless 
thee, but it is eminently the duty of those who lead 
the worship of the church to be devoted to the 
glory of the God of salvation, and lose themselves 
in him, in light ineffable. The nearer the planets ap- 
proach to the sun, the more their borrowed rays are 
lost in his incomparable brightness. So should it be 
with those whom God, who is light, hath chosen, and 
caused to approach unto him. Their every wish 
should merge in this, "To show forth His praise who 
hast called them out of darkness into his marvelous 
light " : they of all men, " should live, not unto them- 
selves, but unto Him that loved them and gave him- 
self for them," also to whom is the additional grace 
given, that they should preach " the unsearchable 
riches of Christ." Accordingly their next duty, as 
subordinate to the first, is to celebrate the grace of 
the Mediator, through whose finished work the glory 
of the Godhead is made known, and the salvation of 
the church is secured. "And the four beasts, and 
four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, 
having every one of them harps, and golden vials full 
of odors, which are the prayers of saints ; and they 
sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the 
book and to open the seals thereof : for thou wast 
slain and hast redeemed us unto God by thy blood out 
of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation ; 



220 



SERMONS. 



and hast made us unto our God kings and priests: 
and we shall reign on the earth/' They lead in the 
praises and prayers of the church, and teach, while 
they sing the grand theme of their ministry, Christ 
crucified, to the Jews a stumbling-block and to the 
Greeks foolishness ; but unto them that are called, 
both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and 
the wisdom of God. Preaching the gospel, admin- 
istering the sacraments, exercising government and 
discipline, and superintending the general interests 
of religion, by authority derived from Christ, as his 
ambassadors and agents in the church on earth, they 
are to give themselves to the great object of show- 
ing forth their Master's glory, in promoting the sal- 
vation of the church, which he has purchased with 
his own blood. 

The prediction here uttered, " and we shall reign 
on the earth," has had a partial accomplishment in 
every age, from the first commencement of the 
kingdom of grace in Paradise ; and the symbol of 
its administration in the cherubim will be more and 
more accomplished as succeeding ages unfold the 
purposes of grace, and will be most fully attained 
in the period of millennial glory, when the church of 
God shall arise from its afflicted and depressed 
state to the ascendant among the powers of earth ; 
" for the kingdom and dominion, and the great- 
ness of the kingdom under the whole Heaven 
shall be given to the people of the saints of the 
Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting 



THE CHERUBIM. 



221 



kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey 
him." 

In bringing about this greatest of all moral revo- 
lutions the ministry are to act the leading part 
among the instrumental agencies employed. Many 
shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be in- 
creased, and then shall the end come. And the 
necessity for this instrumentality is thus reasoned by 
the apostle : " Whosoever shall call upon the name 
of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they 
call on him in whom they have not believed ? 
and how shall they believe in him of whom they 
have not heard ? and how shall they hear without a 
preacher? And how shall they preach except they 
be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet 
of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring 
glad tidings of good things ! " — Rom. x., 13, 15. 

Thus have we seen that the cherubim is the 
symbol of the ministry of reconciliation, who occupy 
the most honorable, arduous, and responsible station 
in the church ; whom God had entrusted, as his 
representatives and agents to men, with the con- 
cerns of his glory ; and whom he has appointed, 
with their consent, the leaders and representatives 
of their fellow-Christians in their transactions with 
God. We have seen the characteristics of those 
who fill so high a sphere to be vigilant circumspec- 
tion and self-knowledge, moral courage, patient 
laboriousness, wisdom, elevated spiritual affections 
and aims, humility and promptitude. And the 



222 



SERMONS. 



duties corresponding with these relations, and in 
which the whole church have fellowship with them, 
are glorifying and enjoying the Triune God, spread- 
ing the gospel, ruling the church, and prompting 
that kingdom which is righteousness and peace and 
joy in the Holy Ghost. Thus in the very field in 
which Satan gained his signal triumph over our 
innocency, and gloried in our ruin, does the Cap- 
tain of our salvation erect the standard of his gospel, 
and portray in living characters the triumphs of his 
grace : Satan vanquished ! sin subdued ! justice 
satisfied ! Heaven made sure ! " Glory to God in 
the highest, on earth peace, and good-will to men." 

From this subject we, who are in the ministry, 
may learn that it is our duty to magnify our 
office. We ought to understand the favor that 
is shown us in putting us into the ministry, 
that we may give to God our Saviour the glory of 
his condescension in admitting to the rank of 
workers together with him such poor, unworthy 
sinners as we are. And while we remember that 
the treasure is in the earthen vessel, let us not for- 
get the end of this dispensation, — " that the ex- 
cellency of the power may be of God and not of us." 
Comparing the inspired description of what we 
ought to be, with what we are, it becomes us to be 
humbled under a sense of our insufficiency. And 
while every proper exertion is used to approach as 
near to the scriptural standard as possible, let the 
promise of the Master be our dependence and con- 



THE CHERUBIM. 



223 



solation, " Lo, I am with you always, even to the 
end of the world " ; ministerial gifts and success, as 
well as office, are his to bestow. 

Let the promotion of the glory of God our 
Saviour be the object nearest our hearts, and stimu- 
late us to every duty of our holy office. "Knowing 
also the terror of the Lord, let us persuade men." 
And animated with the hope of the honor and 
blessedness of those who, having turned many to 
righteousness, shall shine as the brightness of the 
firmament, and as the stars for ever and ever, let us 
not even count our lives dear, that we may finish 
our course with joy, and the ministry which we 
have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the 
gospel of the grace of God. Then may we adopt 
the language of one now in glory : " I have fought 
a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept 
the faith : henceforth there is laid up for me a 
crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the right- 
eous Judge, shall give me at that day : and not unto 
me only, but unto all them also that love his 
appearing." 

Those who enjoy a dispensation of the gospel are 
bound, in duty and gratitude, to co-operate with 
the ministers of the gospel in celebrating the excel- 
lencies of Jehovah and the mediatorial work of the 
Lord Jesus. The first three petitions in the Lord's 
prayer indicate what should be the grand desires, 
prayers, and endeavors of all his people ; that his 
name should be hallowed by extending his kingdom,. 



224 



SERMONS. 



until his will be done on earth as it is done in 
Heaven. 

As the harvest is plenteous and the laborers are 
few, pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that 
he will send forth laborers into his harvest. And 
see that you make a personal use of the dispensation 
of the gospel, searching the Scriptures daily, whether 
the things which you hear are so ; and whatever his 
ambassadors publish according to their instructions, 
lay it up in your hearts in faith and love, and practice 
it in your lives. A most solemn responsibility rests 
upon the hearers of the gospel, as well as upon those 
who herald it. If it be not the means of your salva- 
tion, it will exceedingly aggravate your doom. 

" We are unto God a sweet savor of Christ, in 
them that are saved, and in them that perish : to 
the one we are the savor of life unto life ; and to 
the other the savor of death unto death." " Now 
then we are ambassadors for Christ as though God 
did beseech you by us, we pray you, in Christ's 
stead, be ye reconciled to God." Thus may we all 
at last, ministers and people, unite in the anthem of 
the general assembly and church of the first-born 
that are written in Heaven: "Thou art worthy — for 
thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy 
blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, 
and nation ; and hast made us unto our God kings 
and priests." " Blessing, and honor, and glory, and 
power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, 
and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever." 



THE ATONEMENT. 



225 



THE ATONEMENT. 



" Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the 
world!"— John i., 29. 

a THE natural man receiveth not the things of 
1 the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness 
unto him, neither can he know them because they 
are spiritually discerned." 

The peculiar doctrines of the Bible are either un- 
interesting to unrenewed men, because beyond the 
range of their voluntary thought, or hated by them, 
because opposed to their natural prejudices and 
feelings ; and when forced upon their attention 
by the Spirit of God, they excite a decided repul- 
sion, and produce a shock like the stroke of the 
torpedo. 

While every form of error and delusion enjoys, in 
its turn, the sunshine of popular favor, the truth, 
which has God for its author and heaven for its end, 
insures to its advocates and friends the ungrateful 
distinction that they shall be everywhere spoken 
against. But God seeth not as man seeth. And he 
has informed us that his word shall have its day, and 
every form of soul-destroying heresy be exposed in 
its true colors, and be banished from the earth ; for 
the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, 

227 



228 



SERMONS. 



as the waters cover the sea. And from one new 
moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, 
all flesh shall come to worship before the Lord of 
hosts. The atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ is 
to the Christian what the sun is to the solar system. 
Take this away, and universal night and death suc- 
ceed. Preserve this, and all is order, and light, and 
life, and beauty and gladness. Mistake, here, gives 
dim eclipse, and sheds disastrous twilight over many 
nations. 

John, the forerunner of the Messiah, announced 
his arrival on the field of official action, and Ge- 
scribed his character and works in the words of the 
text. 

Other lambs, of earthly race and from human 
folds, had bled by millions, but could never take 
away sin. Save as a shadow of the coming Saviour, 
they seemed only as a continual testimony of abid- 
ing guilt, the judicial bond of our unsatisfied obli- 
gations, the handwriting of ordinances that was 
against us. But now appears the Lamb of God's 
providing, who, by one sacrifice of himself, should 
forever perfect them that are sanctified, and obtain 
eternal redemption for us. Behold the Lamb of God, 
that taketh away the sin of the world. The dim 
shadow is passed, for the glorious substance is come. 
The inefficient, because for the purpose of taking 
away sin the worthless sacrifices of slain beasts 
have given place to a victim so precious that to fur- 
nish th'e sacrifice has made the treasury of heaven 



THE A TONE ME NT. 



229 



comparatively poor ; for all that yet remains in the 
gift of God is, by inspired computation, in compar- 
ison with this, of small value. " He that spared not 
his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how 
shall he not with him also freely give us all things? " — 
Rom. viii., 32. 

" If the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of 
an heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the 
purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the 
blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit 
offered himself without spot to God, purge your 
conscience from dead works to serve the living 
God." — Heb. ix., 13, 14. 

The text teaches the doctrine of atonement in 

I. Its Nature. "The Lamb of God that taketh 
away sin." 

II. Its Extent. "The sin of the world." 

I. Its Nature. The removal of the guilt of sin, 
by the vicarious sufferings of the Lamb of God. 

The doctrine of atonement is part of the doctrine 
of justification. The latter describes the condition 
of those who are enabled to meet all the demands 
of the law, through the obedience and death of their 
Surety. The former is confined to his fulfilling in 
their behalf the penalty of the law. The Lord Jesus 
Christ does both for his people, for he is the Lord 
their righteousness. By the obedience of one, shall 
many be made righteous. By his enduring the pen- 
alty, they are delivered from hell ; by his obeying 



SERMONS. 



the precept, they are entitled to heaven. But to 
satisfy Divine justice for our sins, being a much more 
difficult work than to obey the precept of the law, 
that satisfaction is the most prominent feature in 
the work of salvation. Adam was made capable, at 
the first, of procuring in the stead of his race a title 
to heaven. But no mere creature was ever required 
or permitted to attempt the work of enduring the 
curse of the broken law. This was reserved for the 
only being in the universe who was competent to 
the task, the Eternal Life, who was with the Father, 
and who was manifested unto us, who is the propi- 
tiation for our sins. 

The subject may be presented in the following 
propositions : 

i. Sin has brought man under obligation to en- 
dure the penalty of the law, which is death. This 
obligation is his guilt — the bond which binds his soul 
over to the endurance of the wrath of God ; as many 
as are of the works of the law are under the curse, 
for it is written : " Cursed is every one that contin- 
eth not in all things which are written in the book 
of the law to do them." — Gal. iii., 10. " The wages 
of sin is death." — Rom. vi., 23. " Ye were by nature 
the children of wrath, even as others." — Eph. ii., 3. 
" Children of wrath " is a Hebraism, meaning, wor- 
thy of punishment. " Knowing the judgment of 
God, that they which commit such things are wor- 
thy of death. — Rom. i., 32. The holiness, justice, 
and truth of God confirm these declarations. His 



THE A TONEMENT. 



231 



holiness, who is of purer eyes than to behold evil, 
and can not look upon sin, must be a consuming fire 
against the workers of iniquity. His justice will 
enforce the rights of God, and exact the incurred 
penalty. If it did not, it were in effect confessing 
that the law had enacted more than was meet. His 
truth would be violated if the threatened vengeance 
were not inflicted : what a cloud would it throw 
over the character of God, if the transgressions of 
his law were suffered to go unpunished, if no repa- 
ration was made to his insulted honor and injured 
justice. It would overturn the foundation of all 
morals by marring their prototype, by effacing the 
image and glory of God from the record' of his 
doings with man. But heaven and earth shall pass 
away, sooner than one jot or tittle of his law shall 
fail of its accomplishment, and every transgressor of 
the law be sacrificed upon the altar of Divine ven- 
geance ere the shadow of a shade shall pass upon 
the glory of his administration. If sin might go un- 
punished and leave the character and glory of God 
untarnished, then why are men punished with ever- 
lasting destruction from the presence of the Lord 
and from the glory of his power? It were blas- 
phemy to ascribe such gratuitous cruelty to the 
ever-blessed God. 

" Die, man or justice must, unless for him 
Some other, able and as willing, pay 
The rigid satisfaction, death for death." 

2. The Surety of the new covenant, by identifying 



232 



SERMONS. 



himself with us in our legal relations, assumed the 
obligation to endure our penalty, and, by enduring, 
did remove it from his people. The grand principle 
which pervades, and harmonizes, and explains all 
the representations of Scripture on this momentous 
subject, is that of federal union. Whether this be 
the philosophy of the subject or not, it is the essen- 
tial fact without which all is confusion and ob- 
scurity, and the great end of the scheme of re- 
demption — satisfying Divine justice for the sin of 
man — remains as unsolvable a problem as ever. 
But this truth unlocks the mysteries of salvation. 
It is contained in the title given to the Saviour, 
Heb. vii., 22: " a Surety of a better testament " or 
covenant ; and in all that is said of his works in 
every part of Holy Writ. The surety and the prin- 
cipal, however related to each other, are externally 
but one : hence the common sense of mankind and 
the laws of all nations hold, that whenever a man 
originally free' becomes surety for another, he is 
justly held accountable for his debts. They are one 
in law. Nor is this principle confined to commer- 
cial transactions. What are hostages but sureties 
given for the fulfillment of treaties and answerable 
for the nation to which they belong, even with their 
lives ? On what principle ? Because, to the other 
party, they and their people are one. When, during 
the war of American Independence, the British, 
having made General Lee prisoner, considered and 
treated him as a traitor, the Congress then resorted 



THE A TONEMENT. 



233 



to reprisals. They ordered that Lieutenant-Colonel 
Campbell and five Hessian officers should be impris- 
oned and treated as General Lee was. The history 
of Damon and Pythias illustrates the same truth. 
Not only does the common sense of mankind con- 
firm this position, but the testimony of Scripture is 
full to the point. Judah becomes surety for his 
brother Benjamin to his father: "I will be surety 
for him ; of my hand shalt thou require him : if I 
bring him not unto thee, and set him before thee, 
then let me bear the blame for ever." — Gen. xliii., 9. 
He repeats the transaction to Joseph, and accord- 
ingly entreats : " Let thy servant abide instead of 
the lad a bondman to my lord." — Gen. xliv., 33. 
This principle is assumed by the prophet of the 
Lord, and applied to Ahab because he had suffered 
Benhaded to escape: "Thus saith the Lord, be- 
cause thou hast let go out of thy hand a man whom 
I appointed to utter destruction, therefore thy life 
shall go for his life, and thy people for his people." 
— I Kings, xx., 42. Paul becomes surety for Onesi- 
mus to Philemon : " If he hath wronged thee, or 
oweth thee aught, put that on mine account." — 18. 
The same apostle states and applies the principle to 
Christ : " For scarcely for a righteous man will one 
die : yet peradventure for a good man some would 
even dare to die. But God commendeth his love 
toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ 
died for us." — Romans v., 7, 8. 

This union by the everlasting covenant gives the 



234 



SERMONS. 



character of justice to all the dealings of God, the 
Sovereign and Judge of men, with Christ and his 
church. Because He and his Church are one, like 
the husband and the wife, Ps. xlv., Song of Songs, 
Eph. v., 23, Rom. vii., 4, it is right that He, who in 
himself is holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate 
from sinners, should " be made sin for us, should 
bear our sins and carry our sorrows." For the same 
reason it is right that we, who are by nature dead in 
trespasses and sins and children of wrath, should be 
made the righteousness of God in Him. " In Him 
shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall 
glory." " Of Him are ye in Christ, who of God is 
made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanc- 
tification and redemption." 

This principle makes the vicarious sufferings of an 
innocent person right ; without it, nothing could be 
more heinously unjust than to treat a person, al- 
together sinless and sustaining no legal union to the 
proper offender, as that offender deserves. Without 
it, the fact that Christ has suffered were at irrecon- 
cilable war with the revealed perfections of God. 

The terms, substitution and representation, imply 
this union, and derive their propriety from it, while 
they present in harmonious action the justice and 
mercy of God exacting the penalty of his violated 
law, and yet sparing the unworthy offender, and 
blessing him with righteousness, and honor, and life 
everlasting. 

The whole doctrine of sacrifice, typical and real, 



THE A TONEMENT. 



235 



goes upon the principle of substitution. " And he 
shall lay his hands upon the head of the burnt offer- 
ing, and it shall be accepted for him to make atone- 
ment for him." " And Aaron shall lay both his 
hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over 
him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and 
all their transgression in all their sins, putting them 
upon the head of the goat, and shall send him 
away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness : 
and the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities 
unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the 
goat in the wilderness." — Lev. xvi., 21, 22. 

What is thus taught in relation to the shadow of 
good things to come, is also taught in relation to the 
substance. " But he was wounded for our trans- 
gressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the 
chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with 
his stripes we are healed — the Lord hath laid on him 
the iniquity of us all. " — Isaiah liii., 5, 6. "Yet it 
pleased the Lord to bruise him ; when thou shalt 
make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his 
seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of 
the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of 
the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied : by 
his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify 
many ; for he shall bear their iniquities." — Isaiah 
liii., 10, II ; " who his own self bare our sins in 
his own body on the tree." — I PeL ii., 24. The 
Lord Jesus is proved to have been a representative 
of his people, because everything which defines a 



236 



SERMONS. 



representative is ascribed to him, and to Adam his 
type, in this respect, or in none. In every other re- 
spect, they are perfect contrasts to each other. 

But in all that relates to the covenant of works, 
Adam and his posterity were identified. Did he sin 
in eating the forbidden fruit ? so did they in that 
very act. " By one man's disobedience many were 
made sinners." — Rom. v., 19; was he condemned 
for that act ? so were they. " By the offence of one 
judgment came upon all men to condemnation. " — 
Ver. 18. Did he become liable to the penalty of 
death? so did they. Through the offense of one 
many be dead." — Ver. 15. The case of Christ, the 
antetype, and his people is parallel with this, simply 
as the principle of representation is held in common 
between them ; the covenants, the subjects, and the 
effects of the operation of each are entirely different. 
But is Christ righteous? so are his people by his 
obedience : " By the obedience of one shall many 
be made righteous." — Ver. 19. Was he justified ? so 
are they on his account : " By the righteousness of 
one the free gift came upon all men unto justification 
of life." — Ver. 18. Was he entitled to blessedness 
and glory eternal, in consequence of his obedience ? 
so are they. " If by one man's offense death reigned 
by one ; much more they which receive abundance 
of grace and of the gift of righteousness, shall reign 
in life by one, Jesus Christ.' —Ver. 17. "As in 
Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made 
alive." — 1 Cor. xv., 22. 



THE ATONEMENT. 



237 



All the terms by which the doctrine of atonement 
is expressed imply and illustrate the principle of 
suretyship, from the assumption of the obligations 
of the principle to their complete fulfillment. 

1. It is called a ransom, the price of the liberty of 
a captive. " The son of man came to give his life a 
ransom, [Xvrpov] for many." ; — Matt, xx., 28. This 
term expresses both the value and the efficacy of 
his sufferings on our behalf. The immediate effect 
of this ransom is : 

2. Redemption, the deliverance of the captive 
from his bonds. " In whom we have redemption, 
[cxTtoXvrpaffiv] through his blood, the forgiveness 
of sins." — Eph. i., 7. " Ye were not redeemed with 
corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your 
vain conversation received by tradition from your 
fathers ; but with the precious blood of Christ, as 
of a lamb without blemish and without spot." — I 
Peter i., 18, 19. 

Besides these somewhat figurative, but not the less 
expressive, terms there are others which denote 
more particularly the way in which the atonement 
is made. 

3. The sin offering [chalaah] expresses the assump- 
tion of our sin by our substitute, and his bearing it 
in our stead. " He hath made him to be sin for us, 
who knew no sin ; that we might be made the right- 
eousness of God in him." — 2 Cor. v., 21. " Sacrifice 
and offering and burnt-offerings and offerings for 
sin, thou would not, neither hadst pleasure therein ; 



2 3 8 



SERMOA r S. 



which are offered by the law ; then said he, lo, I come 
to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first 
that he may establish the second ; by the which will 
we are sanctified through the offering of the body of 
Jesus Christ once for all." — Heb. x., 8, 10. " Now 
once in the end of the world hath he appeared to 
put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." " Christ 
was once offered to bear the sins of many." — ix., 
26, 28. 

The terms which have been adduced describe our 
surety assuming the load of our guilt, and, by en- 
during the penalty of the law in our stead, render- 
ing full satisfaction to Divine justice on our behalf. 
Those which follow indicate the efficacy of his suf- 
fering in the removal of guilt and the consequent 
wrath and curse of God. 

4. Atonement [copher] literally means to cover, 
to hide transgression by enduring the penalty. 
"And the priest shall make an atonement for them, 
and it shall be forgiven them." — Lev. iv., 20. The 
corresponding verb [cophar] signifies to propitiate, 
to appease. " I will appease him with the present 
that goeth before me." — Gen. xxxii., 20. "As 
for our sins, thou wilt purge them away." — Ps. 
lxv., 3. The words by which these are rendered 
in the Septuagint translation, and which are adopted 
by the New Testament writers, are : 

5. Reconciliation. "To make reconciliation, 
[iXaGxe&Sai] for the sins of the people." — Heb. ii., 
17. "And he is the propitiation [HaG/tos] for 



THE ATONEMENT. 



239 



our sins." — 1 John ii., 2. The only word translated 
atonement, in the New Testament, literally means 
reconciliation, [xar aXkayrfv'] — Rom. v., II. It is 
so rendered in all the other places where it is used ; 
" the word of reconciliation " ; — 2 Cor. v., 18, 19 ; " if 
the casting away of them be the reconciling of the 
world." — Rom. xi., 15. 

6. Propitiation. " Whom God hath set forth to 
be a propitiation [iXa(Trr/plor] through faith in his 
blood." — Rom. iii., 25. This word is used in the 
Septuagint : — Lev. xvi., 13, 15, 16, and in Heb. ix., 
5, for the covering of the ark of the covenant, and 
hence, by a natural and beautiful transition, for that 
blood of the new covenant, which covers and hides 
the old covenant, which we have broken, from the 
eyes of the Holy One of Israel. 

The two goats, on the great day of atonement, — 
Lev. xvi., illustrate the two grand ideas to which 
these terms may be referred, the suffering by the 
one that was slain, and its efficacy by the other, the 
scape-goat sent away into the wilderness, and bear- 
ing upon him all their iniquities unto a land of sepa- 
ration. But while Jesus was all that the sacrifices 
and the priests, the altar and the tabernacle, did but 
dimly shadow forth, the infinite value of his atone- 
ment, whose price is above all price, has no type. 
This belongs exclusively to the Lamb of God that 
taketh away the sin of the world. As this results 
from the divine nature of the offerer, it constitutes 
the divinity of his sacrifice, and sets it an unap- 



SERMONS. 



proachable distance from everything else that bears 
the name. " The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, 
cleanseth us from all sin." " The church of God 
which he hath purchased with his own blood." 

But it is objected, Christ did not endure the pen- 
alty of the law, inasmuch as he had no remorse of 
conscience, nor does he suffer forever. 

But those who take this ground, have yet to show 
that there was either justice or utility in the undis- 
puted fact, that Christ did suffer. If it was not the 
penalty to our sins, what was it ? Not for his own 
sins ; he knew no sin. His sufferings were then 
wholly gratuitous — not deserved either by himself or 
his people. And what is the infliction of undeserved 
misery, but injustice and cruelty ? And what can 
be the utility of such an exhibition in the eyes of 
the universe? 

But whether men will receive it or not, the sure 
testimony of God has determined the question, and 
that testimony will weigh more with right-hearted 
men than all the little quibbles of self-conceited 
sciolists. "The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity 
of us all." — Isaiah liii., 6. " God sent forth his Son, 
made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem 
them that were under the law." — Gal. iv., 4, 5. 
" Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, 
being made a curse for us." — Gal. iii., 13. If Christ 
did not endure the penalty due for the sins of his 
people, he is dead in vain ; for this is the very end for 
which he died. If the substitute, the surety, does 



THE A TONEMENT. 



241 



not meet the obligations of his principal, he fails in 
his undertaking, and those obligations remain unan- 
swered in all their force. Nor is the difficulty sug- 
gested by the objection, to reconcile the difference 
between the principal and surety with the endur- 
ance of the same penalty, so insurmountable as to 
some it may seem. 

To say the surety must be in every respect af- 
fected as the principal would have been, had the 
debt been exacted from him, is just to say that 
the principle of suretyship is useless. That it is not 
useless, universal experience proves ; society could 
not exist without it. But its greatest use has been 
in the case of our Surety, our Kinsman-Redeemer, 
whereby glory unspeakable has accrued to God, and 
blessedness eternal to man. 

The infinite dignity of God makes sin against 
him an infinite evil, to which any possible sufferings 
of the sinner, man, in any given time, are infinitely 
disproportioned. His sufferings must, therefore, be 
eternal. But the infinite dignity of the Son, who 
thought it no robbery to be equal with God, gives 
infinite worth to his atonement. The glory of the 
person making reparation for the offence is equal to 
that of the person offended, and therefore his satis- 
faction was finished and complete in its time. 

Eternity of sufferings and remorse of conscience 
for personal offences are not essential to the death 
threatened for breaking the covenant of works, but 
accidents resulting from the nature of man as fallen. 



242 



SERMONS. 



His impotence to satisfy Divine Justice leaves him 
forever in debt, and his mind, conscious of guilt, 
lashes him with the horrors of endless remorse. 
The fire is never quenched because the corruption 
that feeds it, instead of diminishing, increases for- 
ever. The worm dies not because the carcase is 
ever putrid. But when the fire of Divine vengeance 
seized upon the Lamb of God, it met neither worm 
nor corruption, and burnt itself out in bringing him 
down into the dust of death. Having laid down 
his life, he took it up again, and rose triumphant 
from the dead, the agent, the representative of his 
redeemed, the first fruits of them that slept. The 
case may be illustrated by a familiar comparison: a 
poor man owes a hundred dollars which he is unable 
to pay. If exacted from him, it involves himself 
and family in inextricable difficulties, from which 
they may never emerge. But if a kind and wealthy 
friend becomes surety for him, he can pay the debt 
with comparative ease, and all the long train of 
calamities, in the other case, will be entirely 
avoided. So, if insolvent man must pay his debt 
himself, the prison of hell must contain him forever. 
But his surety, Emmanuel, can discharge it, and not 
only save him from ruin, but confer on him an in- 
heritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that 
fadeth not away, while himself, instead of being 
ruined in the attempt to redeem us from the curse 
of the law, by being made a curse in our place, re- 
ceives an infinite accession to his declarative glory. 



THE A TONEMENT. 



243 



He emerged from the humiliation, the shame and 
the wrath to which, laying aside the honors of the 
Deity, he involuntarily submitted, as Mediator, 
when he received in his sacred person the ven- 
geance due to us, when it was said, "Awake, O 
sword, against the man that is my fellow, saith the 
Lord of Hosts ; smite the shepherd." Having 
drunk the cup of death, the very penalty of the law, 
the wages of sin, whose nameless horror, amaze- 
ment, and anguish none but he could either under- 
stand or endure, he rose the vanquisher of Satan, 
the conqueror of sin, the victor of death, and the 
grave, and hell, and dragged them in triumph at his 
chariot wheels ; while the partial obscuration of the 
brightness of his divine majesty increases, by con- 
trast, the splendors of that glory with which he is 
invested henceforth and forever. The varied beau- 
ties of the rainbow round about his throne, the 
glory of his character and doings reflected from the 
dark cloud of the wrath he had endured, the tem- 
pest which had beaten upon him for his people's 
sake, will beam the story of his spotless holiness, 
his inflexible justice, his inviolable truth, his im- 
measurable love, stronger than death, which the 
floods of almighty vengeance could not quench; 
while every heart and every voice of the saved from 
amongst men ; ministers and members of the church, 
once militant, now triumphant, raise the anthem of 
the skies, "Thou art worthy, for thou wast slain, 
and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of 



244 



SERMONS. 



every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation, 
and hast made us unto our God kings and priests." 
And their elder brothers of creation, the angels of 
light, unenvious of their bliss, join with glad trans- 
port the concert of praise, " Worthy is the Lamb 
that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wis- 
dom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and bless- 
ing" : and every creature which is in heaven and on 
the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in 
the sea, and all that are in them, in universal chorus 
swell the strain, " Blessing, and honor, and glory, 
and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, 
and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever." 

II. The Extent of the Atonement, is determined 
by its nature : the " Lamb of God that taketh away 
the sin of the world." 

I. If, as has been shown, the federal union of 
Christ and his people is the basis of the atonement, 
then it extends only to those for whom he en- 
gaged to be surety in the everlasting covenant : who 
were " chosen in him, before the foundation of the 
world : " — Eph. i., 4 : who were given to him ; 
should come unto him and be saved. " All that the 
Father giveth me, shall come to me ; and him 
that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. 
And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, 
that of all which he hath given me, I should lose 
nothing, but should raise it up again at the last 
day."— John vi., 37, 39. 

The condition of that covenant is the obedience 



THE A TONEMENT. 



245 



unto death, of the Surety, the Kinsman-Redeemer, 
which is therefore called " the blood of the cove- 
nant." " Thou shalt make his soul an offering for 
sin." Is. liii., 10. The promise suspended upon it is, 
" He shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, 
and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his 
hand : he shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall 
be satisfied. By the knowledge of himself shall my 
righteous servant justify many ; for he shall bear 
their iniquities." — 10, 11. This promise is a point- 
blank contradiction of the supposition that those for 
whom his soul travailed shall perish forever, that 
he will condemn instead of justifying those for whom 
he bore iniquity. Beyond this union and its con- 
sequent representation and substitution, the atone- 
ment extends not, for these are among its essential 
attributes, without which the sufferings of Christ, 
could they have been endured (as they could not), 
had availed nothing. 

2. All the terms by which this doctrine is ex- 
pressed confine the atonement to those who, 
viewed in the purpose of God, are the elect, and in 
its execution, are the finally saved. Is it a sin 
offering — a sacrifice ? then as He appeared to put 
away sin by the sacrifice of himself, they shall not 
perish for whom he suffered. Is he the Lamb of 
God ? then he takeih away sin. Is it a ransom ? a 
price of redemption of infinite value? then the 
captives for whom the price is paid must, in justice 
to him who paid it, in due time be free. To say 



246 



SERMONS. 



otherwise is to charge injustice upon God, in not 
giving to the Surety what he purchased at so great 
a price, or to make the ransom itself of no value, 
seeing those for whom it was paid are lost forever, 
and no injustice is done. Is it a redemption ? Then 
its subjects must be free. Is it a propitiation ? 
Then, as the Saviour did not die in vain, his suffer- 
ings shall effect their purpose, in averting the dis- 
pleasure of God the Judge, and procuring accept- 
ance with him here, and at the Judgment Day. Is 
it a reconciliation ? Then those for whom it was 
made shall, in the time appointed, be actually recon- 
ciled to God by the death of his Son. 

An accepted sacrifice which leaves the sinner for 
whom it was offered and accepted under endless 
guilt and misery ; a ransom of infinite value which 
deserves not the liberty of the captives ; a redemp- 
tion which leaves its subjects in everlasting bondage ; 
a propitiation that does not remove displeasure ; a 
reconciliation which leaves the parties at endless 
variance, are gross, palpable, and inexcusable con- 
tradictions. But these are the proper definitions of 
the scriptural terms by which the doctrine of atone- 
ment is expressed, on the supposition of the general 
atonement. A doctrine, therefore, which makes ab- 
surdity of the Bible, must itself be absurd. 

3. The atonement is expressly limited by the 
Holy Scriptures. The Saviour says: " I lay down 
my life for the sheep." — John x., 15. To say that 
he might lay down his life also for others who were 



THE A TONEMENT. 



247 



not his sheep, is to make his language unmeaning. 
Why should he say his sheep, if the objects of his 
death were indiscriminately the sheep and the goats? 
Besides, the context confines the sheep to those who 
should be saved : " My sheep hear my voice, and I 
know them, and they follow me : and I give unto 
them eternal life, and they shall never perish." — 
John x., 27, 28. The relation between the good 
Shepherd and his sheep exists antecedently to 
faith and is cause of it ; while the want of the re- 
lation is the negative reason why others believe not, 
as the absence of the sun is the reason of night. 
" The works that I do, they bear witness of me ; but 
ye believe not because ye are not of my sheep : my 
sheep hear my voice." — John x., 25-27. *' Other 
sheep I have which are not of this fold : them also 
I must bring, and they shall hear my voice ; and 
there shall be one fold, and one shepherd." — Ver. 16. 
" To you it is given on the behalf of Christ, to 
believe on him." — Phil, i., 29. — "Christ loved the 
church, and gave himself for it." — Eph. v., 25. The 
church of God, which he hath purchased with his 
own blood." — Acts xx., 28. 

Christ's intercession is limited : " I pray for them: 
I pray not for the world, but for them which thou 
hast given me." — John xvii., 9. It is worse than 
absurd to suppose that he would die for those for 
whom he would not intercede ; that he would do 
the greater, and would not do the less. 

4. The Apostle Paul reasons from the gift of the 



248 



SERMONS. 



Son to the absolute certainty of every other good 
gift : " He that spared not his own Son, but de- 
livered him up for us all, how shall he not with 
him also freely give us all things." — Rom. viii., 32. 
But if the doctrine of general atonement be true, 
the apostle's argument is without force, for accord- 
ing to it he has given his Son for those to whom 
he never sends the knowledge of the gift, and for 
whom the Son never intercedes. 

5. The direct testimony derives confirmation 
from the absurdity of every other supposition. 
General atonement by implication charges God 
with injustice, for it represents him as exacting the 
payment of a debt a second time, after it has once 
been paid and he has accepted the payment. After 
Christ the surety has paid the debt, the original 
debtor must be cast into the prison of the pit for- 
ever, and for the same sins for which justice has 
already been satisfied ! Can conduct which would 
ruin the character of a man, be ascribed to the 
Righteous One, the ever-blessed God ? 

Either Christ died for all the sins of all men, or 
some of the sins of all men, or all the sins of some 
men — not for all the sins of all men, for then all 
men would be saved: which is contrary to his own 
testimony, " these shall go away into everlasting 
punishment." Not for some of the sins of all men, 
for then the other sins for which he did not die 
would insure the perdition of all men ; which none 
pretend to hold. To this scheme belongs the 



THE A TONE ME NT. 



249 



evasion, that all are not saved because all do not 
believe, for their unbelief is either a sin or it is not ; 
if it is, it has either been atoned for, or it has not : 
if it has, why should any be lost for a sin which has 
already been atoned for? If it has not, then all 
must perish, for all are by nature unbelievers. If it 
is no sin, why should they perish without cause? 
The only remaining supposition is the truth for 
which it is now contended, he died for all the sins of 
some men : that is, the atonement is limited. The 
modern evasion, that he died for sin in the abstract, 
nullifies atonement entirely, inasmuch as it assigns 
it neither object nor cause. Sin is a quality of the 
actions of moral beings, and can have no existence 
without them. Sin in the abstract is nothing, and 
atonement for such a nothing is itself less than 
nothing and vanity. 

6. The text itself, when fairly interpreted, con- 
firms the view which has been taken, although it is 
often quoted to prove the contrary doctrine : " Be- 
hold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of 
the world." The world are those whose sins he takes 
away, and, our opponents themselves being judges 
(except Universalists), the sins of all men without 
exception are not taken away. 

It may be proper here to state a general principle of 
interpretation which throws light upon this subject : 
general terms are always restricted by the subjects 
to which they relate, and by what is predicated of 
them. In the present case, the subject, the world, 



250 



SERMONS. 



is necessarily restricted by what is asserted of it — 
that Christ takes away their sins ; which, if asserted 
of every human being without exception, would 
contradict the other Scriptures. The statement 
made is only true of some men, and therefore only 
extends to some. John, the forerunner, announced 
the Messiah whose death would introduce a more 
extensive dispensation of grace than had obtained, 
and accordingly uses a term of extensive significa- 
tion in relation to the object of his coming and 
death. How extensive its meaning is, must be 
learned from the context and other parts of Scrip- 
ture. That the word is used in a limited sense, is 
manifest from verse 10 of this chapter : " The 
world knew him not." It does not mean that ?wne 
knew him. " The whole world lieth in wickedness," 
(the wicked one) — I John v., 19. In the same verse it 
is said, " We are of God." " All the world wondered 
after the beast." — Rev. xiii., 3. If it mean every 
human being, why should the "beast make war with 
the saints," vs. 7, 8. And in St. John xii., 19, we 
have a case analogous to the text, w T hen it is used 
for those who have a special interest in Christ ; not 
every human being, but the better part of men : 
"The world is gone after him." 

As it is perfectly obvious that scriptural usage 
generally gives the term a limited signification, so 
in all the places in which it is applied to the salva- 
tion of Christ, the immediate context proves that it 
is to be taken in a restricted sense. 



THE A TON EM EN T. 



251 



"God so loved the world that he gave his only 
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him 
shall not perish, but have everlasting life." — John 
iii., 16. Then, as before, the greater implies the less ; 
the love that gave the Son insures every other gift, 
and the subject is defined by its predicates. Be- 
lieving and being saved limit the term, and identify 
the objects of God's unutterable love with the sub- 
jects of the great salvation. His counsel shall 
stand and he will do all his pleasure. " We have 
heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed 
the Christ, the Saviour of the world." — John iv., 
42. He is the Saviour only of the saved. The 
saviour of the finally and irretrievably lost, is a title 
as absurd as it is dishonorable to the great Captain 
of our salvation. 

" The bread that I will give is my flesh, which 
I will give for the life of the world." — John vi.; 51. 
But the apostle regards it as clearly absurd, to sup- 
pose " that Christ is dead in vain," which certainly 
he would be if any of those for whom he gave his 
flesh should die forever. "God was in Christ, recon- 
ciling the world unto himself ; not imputing their 
trespasses unto them." — 2 Cor. v., 19. The world 
here are those to whom God does not impute their 
trespasses — whom he reconciles to himself ; that is, 
the saved from among men. 

" He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for 
ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." 
— 1 John ii., 1, 2. We, and the whole world, are the 



2 5 2 



SERMONS. 



first fruits, and the whole harvest of those who shall 
enjoy the light of God's reconciled countenance, for 
whom Christ acts as advocate according to his own 
showing. " Neither pray I for these alone, but for 
them also that shall believe on me through their 
word." — John xvii., 20. In the First Epistle of 
John the whole world is contrasted with believers 
then in the world, and must therefore be limited by 
these exceptions : " We know that we are of God, 
and the whole world lieth in wickedness," [or the 
wicked one]. — 1 John v., 19. 

The word " all " is relied upon to prove general 
atonement. But the context shows, in every place 
where it is used on the subject, that it is to be 
restricted to the people of Christ — the elect, the 
saved. The free gift came upon all men, unto justi- 
fication of life. — Rom. v., 18. The "all" spoken of 
are limited by what is asserted of them ; they are 
justified and live. 

" In Christ shall all be made alive." — 1 Cor. xv., 
22. Who are the all ? Not every man without ex- 
ception, which is Universalism — These, the wicked, 
"shall go away into everlasting punishment"; but 
those who shall be made alive : Christ has not pro- 
cured for them a salvable state, but salvation. To 
be in Christ, and to be saved, belong to the all; but 
neither of these predicates belong to the lost for- 
ever. 

" If one died for all, then were all dead." — 2 Cor. 
v., 14. The word an^avov, translated were dead, 



THE A TONEMENT. 



253 



is rendered in the same verse died, and should be so 
rendered in this clause : " If one died for all, then 
all died." The text assumes the federal identity of 
Christ and the all, who died in his death and live to 
him who died and rose again in their stead. " Who 
gave himself a ransom for all." — 1 Tim. ii., 6. The 
context shows that the all is to be taken indiscrim- 
inately for men of all ranks and descriptions, for 
kings and all that are in authority : not universally, 
for then it were enjoined to pray for the dead and 
the finally lost, which is contrary to the Scriptures. 
Besides, this ransom deserves and must secure the 
deliverance of all for whom it was given. 

In showing how the text itself, and corresponding 
passages of holy Scripture, instead of disproving 
do establish the doctrine of limited atonement, some 
of the principal objections to that doctrine have 
been anticipated and the artillery of the opponents 
turned upon themselves. Some other objections on 
which reliance is placed remain to be considered. 

Such general terms as the world, the whole world, 
and all men, however explained by the connection 
in which they stand, and by other parts of Scripture 
on the same subject, are by many regarded as quite 
conclusive against particular, and in favor of indefi- 
nite, atonement. 

Many of the passages referred to have been al- 
ready remarked upon : it may be proper to notice a 
few others, that it may appear that, if they add 
nothing to the evidence already adduced in support 



254 



SERMONS. 



of a definite, particular, and effectual atonement, 
they detract nothing from it. 

" We trust in the living God, who is the Saviour 
of all men, especially of those that believe." — I Tim. 
iv., 10. If the word Saviour here relates to external, 
salvation, and " all men " means every individual, 
without exception, then, indeed, universal salvation 
is true : but it is not true : therefore, one of these 
terms must be limited. Saviour, here means provi- 
dential preserver in danger, which the Living God 
is to all men, especially to believers. This confi- 
dence preserved the minds of the apostles in calm- 
ness and peace, amid the dangers and trials of their 
work and ministry. 

" Should taste death for every man." — Heb. ii., 9. 
The word u man " is a supplement by the translators, 
and according to the context would more properly 
be supplied by the word son : " For it became him, 
for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, 
in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Cap- 
tain of their salvation perfect though sufferings." — 
Verse 10. 

Nor is it possible that any for whom Christ died 
should be lost. In John xvii., 12: "None of them 
is lost but \_ei pLif] the son of perdition "; the eipirj is 
adversative, not exceptive, as in almost every other 
case in which it is used. Luke iv., 26, 27 ; Rev. ix., 
4. To render it as an exceptive in all these cases 
would be to assert that the widow of Sarepta, a city 
of Sidon, was one of the widows of Israel ; that 



THE A TONEMENT. 



255 



Naaman the Syrian was a leper of Israel ; and that 
men are vegetables. These being absurd, the ad- 
versative sense must be adopted, and then it would 
read : " None of them is lost, but the son of perdi- 
tion is lost." 

" Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ 
died." — Rom. xiv., 15. "And through thy know- 
ledge shall the weak brother perish for whom Christ 
died?" — 1 Cor. viii., 1 1. These texts are adduced 
to prove that some of those for whom Christ died 
shall perish. But they do not assert this. The 
tendency of the conduct reprobated was to the de- 
struction of the brother, because temptation leads 
to sin, and sin to death ; but this is entirely consis- 
tent with the effectual grace of God, which can pre- 
vent the issue to which it tends. Why will ye die ? 
means, why pursue the course that leads to death? 
not that all men who do now pursue it shall certainly 
perish. 

" Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, 
shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under 
foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of 
the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy 
thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of 
grace? " — Heb. x., 29. But the person sanctified is 
the Son of God, the immediate antecedent, according 
to John xvii., 19. " For their sakes I sanctify my- 
self." To sanctify, in these and other places, means 
to prepare for the service of God, in his temple, 
which even Jesus could not do without the blood 



256 



SERMONS. 



of the covenant, his own blood ; as the High Priest 
could not appear in the holy places, without blood 
of others, so Jesus entered into the holy place not 
made with hands, with his own blood. 

" There shall be false teachers among you, who 
privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even deny- 
ing the Lord who bought them, and bring upon 
themselves swift destruction." — 2 Pet. ii., 1. If 
daGrtotrfv, rendered Lord, means God the Father, 
as generally it does, — Luke ii., 29 ; Acts iv., 24, 
then the text has nothing to do with the question ; 
it simply charges these false teachers with apostasy 
from God, whose they were by creation and innumer- 
able benefits; if the Son, then, according to their 
own profession, they were bought by Christ, and 
ought to serve him. Their denial of him was aggra- 
vated in its sinfulness, because against their avowed 
principles. The Scriptures do sometimes represent 
things according to human opinion and profession ; 
as Jesus takes up, on his own principles, the young 
man who came to ask the way of eternal life, seek- 
ing to be justified by the law. And Paul says, 
Gal. v., 4: " Christ is become of no effect unto you, 
whosoever of you are justified by the law ; ye are 
fallen from grace." There are none justified by the 
law, in fact, but many may profess to be so. These 
teachers were Antinomians turning grace into an 
occasion of licentiousness. They claimed relation- 
ship to Christ, but he never knew them. 

One other objection which deserves attention, as 



THE A TON EM EN T. 



257 



connected with the practical application of this sub- 
ject, is that the limited atonement is inconsistent 
with the general offer of the gospel. But if this ob- 
jection had real force, it would disprove the existence 
of God. It assumes that no blessings are to be 
offered to any who can not receive them. 

Now, even on the Arminian scheme, those whose 
perdition is foreseen can not believe. But, on the 
principle of the objection, the general offer implies 
a right and power to be saved beyond the limits of 
the actually saved, which disproves prescience, which 
disproves God. 

Wherein the supposed inconsistency lies, has never 
been shown. Is the merchant at liberty to offer his 
goods to the whole world, as far as his advertisement 
goes, when all the world knows he can not possibly 
supply all who read or hear his offer? and is it 
wrong in God to offer his salvation to multitudes 
more than he ever intended, in fact, to save ? Is 
the general advertisement the means of disposing 
of the stock in hand ? So, also, the general offer is 
the means of bringing those for whom Christ died, 
to the actual enjoyment of the blessings of his sal- 
vation. God offers nothing which he will withhold 
from those who accept his offer. He promises noth- 
ing, but what he will fulfill. Whosoever believes 
shall be saved. Try him, sinner, and you will never 
have reason to be ashamed of your confidence. 
" Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast 
out." Your warrant to believe, is God's free offer 



SERMONS. 



in the gospel : " Ho, every one that thirsteth, come 
ye to the waters! " Believers, behold the Lamb of 
God ! Live upon Him by faith. Cling to his surety- 
ship, as the sheet-anchor of your hopes. Be not 
dazzled by the delusive glare of an atonement so 
extensive that it reaches to those who never heard 
of it, and are hopelessly and forever lost. All shall 
be saved by the only real and true atonement, that 
ever shall be saved. The scheme which claims ex- 
clusive liberality and benevolence adds nothing to 
the happiness of man, above that conferred by the 
limited atonement, while it removes in fact the only 
foundation of a sinner's hope, and casts unutterable 
dishonor upon all the perfections of God, 



ANSWER TO A DISCOURSE 

PREACHED BY 

DR. WILLIAM E. CHANNING 

AT THE DEDICATION OF THE 

SECOND CONGREGATIONAL UNITARIAN CHURCH 
New York, Dec. 7, 1826. 



259 



THE TRUE RELIGION. 



I^HE importance of the subjects embraced in this 
discourse, and the abilities of its author, have 
given it celebrity. But it is promised, that " when 
the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of 
the Lord shall lift up a standard against him." How- 
are we to look for the fulfillment of this promise ? 
Clearly by prayer, and faithful exertions in depend- 
ence on Divine aid, as workers together with God. 
Seeing then that a bold and open attack has been 
made upon those doctrines which have been most 
dear to the Church in every age, it becomes those 
who are set for the defence of the gospel, promptly 
and vigorously to repel it. Whilst the poison of 
the rankest heresy is diligently circulated through 
the veins of the community, and threatening to cor- 
rupt the vitals of human hope, effectual antidotes 
should be everywhere at hand. 

The plan adopted in the following remarks is to 
follow the writer of the discourse through his intro- 
duction and argument, noticing in his own language 
the positions he assumed, and adverting, in the 
course of the discussion, to the principal reasons by 
which he endeavors to support them. 

261 



262 



SERMONS. 



He is first met on the ground which he has chosen, 
that of general reason ; and then the doctrines which 
he contradicts are established by testimonies from 
Holy Writ, and the opposition of his scheme and his 
piety to the doctrines and piety of the Bible and of 
truth, thence briefly inferred. 

First. The introduction of Dr. Channing's dis- 
course contains several views, having an impor- 
tant bearing upon the grand question in debate, 
" Whether Unitarianism or its opposite be the 
true religion ? " 

§ 1. The occasion upon which this sermon was 
delivered, and the services of which it was a part, 
may serve to throw light upon the character of that 
system which it advocates. 

A house of worship is to be dedicated. According 
to the uniform usage of Scripture, such dedication is 
never made to any being but to God. When, there- 
fore, with religious services, Unitarians dedicate their 
church to Jesus Christ, who according to them is a 
mere man, at most a creature, they are guilty of 
idolatry ; for by the very act of dedication they give 
to a creature, equally with the Creator, the honor 
which is due to God alone, (2 Chron. viL, 5 ; Ezra vi.> 
16, 17.) Dr. Channing in the close of his sermon, 
where he resumes this subject, explains dedication, 
by " offering up to the only living and true God : 
we dedicate it to the King and Father Eternal ; we 
dedicate it to Jesus Christ : we dedicate it to the Holy 
Spirit." How, then, does he dare to " offer up " 



THE TRUE RELIGION. 



263 



the same sacrifice to a man, and to " emanations of 
light and strength? " 

How does this differ from dedicating temples to 
Jupiter, and to Virtue, or Fear? The only true 
answer is, the Unitarian God is a different being from 
the God of the Bible, who will not give his glory to 
another. 

§ 2. In the very first page, Dr. Channing takes 
leave of his text (Mark xii., 29, 30) and the whole 
Scripture at once, and never through the whole ser- 
mon so much as pretends to establish a single point 
in debate by the authority of the inspired word. In 
this he is at least consistent with himself and the 
other lights of the Unitarian school — for it is their 
uniform endeavor to make the word of God of none 
effect. He informs us: " For this religious act 
we find, indeed, no precept in the New Testament." 
The old Testament he does not condescend to notice. 
And so, according to their own showing, Unitarians 
can perform religious acts without any authority 
from the Bible at all. To what, then, do the claims 
of the Bible as a rule of life amount ? Dr. Channing 
shall tell us. 

"We are not among those who consider the writ- 
ten word as a statute book, by the letter of which 
every step in life must be governed. We believe, 
on the other hand, that one of the great excellencies 
of Christianity is, that it does not deal in minute 
regulation, but that, having given broad views of 
duty, and enjoined a pure and disinterested spirit, 



264 SERMONS. 



it leaves us to apply these rules and express this 
spirit according to the promptings of the divine 
monitor within us, and according to the claims and 
exigencies of the ever-varying conditions in which 
we are placed : that revelation is not intended to 
supersede God's other modes of instruction ; not to 
disown, but to make more audible, the voice of 
nature." Having denied the binding force of any 
minute regulations, and admitted nothing but views 
of duty so broad as to convey (if Unitarian practice 
is any illustration of their theory) no definite instruc- 
tions at all, this oracle of Unitarianism betakes him- 
self to the more intelligible dictates of nature. 

Not only will their broad views of Scripture per- 
mit them to perform religious acts, but to form their 
religious creed, not only without the slightest inti- 
mations from the Divine word, but in direct contra- 
diction to its explicit declarations. Of this, the ser- 
mon under consideration is a fine specimen. Dr. 
Channing, however, is not alone in his views of 
Scripture. Anti-Trinitarians of every age since the 
days of Socinus have agreed in refusing to be tram- 
melled or restricted in their views by the decisions 
of Scripture, however numerous or clear.* Faustus 
Socinus, after having condemned the received doc- 
trine of atonement, says : " Ego quidam etiamsi non 
semel sed scepe id in sacris monimentis scriptum 
extaret ; non id circo tamen ita rem prorsus se 
habere crederem." 



*See Magee on Atonement, vol. i., pp. 132-134, and 157. 



THE TRUE RELIGION. 



265 



" Although it were written in the sacred records 
not once, but often, yet I could not believe that 
therefore it is even so." 

Smalcius affirms of the Incarnation : " Credimus 
etiamsi non semel atque iterum sed satis crebro et 
disertissime scriptum extaret Deum esse hominem 
factum multo satius esse quia haec res sit absurda et 
sanae rationi plane contraria et in Deum blasphema 
modum aliquem dicendi comminisci quo ista de 
Deo dici possint quam ista simpliciter ita ut verba 
sonant intelligere." " Although it were written, not 
once and again, but with sufficient frequency, and 
most expressly, forasmuch as this thing were evi- 
dently absurd, and contrary to sound reason, and 
blasphemous against God, we believe it to be much 
better to invent some mode of speaking, by which 
these things may be said of God, than to understand 
them simply as the words signify." 

And what says Dr. Priestly, the apostle of Uni- 
tarianism in this country ? Endeavoring to prove 
that the text (John vi., 62), " What and if ye shall 
see the Son of man ascend up where he was before ? " 
contains no proof of Christ's pre-existence, he uses 
this language : " Though not satisfied with any inter- 
pretation of this extraordinary passage, yet, rather 
than believe our Saviour to have existed in any other 
state before the creation of the world, or to have left 
some state of great dignity and happiness when he 
came hither, he would have recourse to the old and 
exploded Socinian idea of Christ's actual ascent 



266 



SERMONS. 



into heaven, or of his imagining that he had been 
carried up thither in a vision, which, like that of 
St. Paul, he had not been able to distinguish from 
a reality. Nay, he would not build an article of 
faith of such magnitude on the correctness of John's 
recollection, and representation of our Lord's lan- 
guage ; and so strange and incredible does the 
hypothesis of a pre-existent state appear, that sooner 
than admit it he would suppose the whole verse to 
be an interpolation, or that the old apostle dictated 
one thing and his amanuensis wrote another." * 
With such declarations before us, confirmed by the 
uniform practice of Unitarian writers, to what do 
their occasional expressions of reverence for the 
holy Scriptures amount, more than a mask, under 
which they would conceal their attempt to subvert 
from its foundations the religion of the Bible ? 

This device, however, is as flimsy as it is insidi- 
ous. Their semblance of Christianity is no better 
than a veil of cobweb, to hide their enmity to the 
truths of the gospel, that lurks beneath it. They 
profess to believe that God has spoken to them by 
a revelation from heaven, and yet refuse to credit 
his testimony ; the testimony of the source of truth 
and knowledge himself ! This is a greater absurd- 
ity a thousand-fold, than has ever been proved 
against the doctrine of the Trinity. These men 
have a much better claim to the appellation of 
Deists than of Christians ; for both these classes 
* Letters to Dr. Price, pp. 57, 58, etc., in Magee. 

/ 



THE TRUE RELIGION. 



267 



are to be distinguished from Trinitarians, more by 
what they reject, than what they believe ; and they 
both agree to reject the supreme authority of the 
Bible in matters of faith, and appeal, as to the 
highest tribunal, to the decisions of reason. The 
principal difference between Deists and Unitarians 
is in the weight they attach to the evidence of a 
Divine revelation ; the latter admitting, the former 
rejecting, the conclusion to which it leads. But 
this difference, instead of making the Unitarian 
ground more tenable, makes it more glaringly weak 
and absurd. They have made common cause with 
the Deists, in adopting one class of their argu- 
ments — that drawn from the supposed unreason- 
ableness of Trinitarian doctrines; but having also 
admitted the truth of the revelation, Unitarians 
are chargeable with the contradiction of believing 
that the same things are true because revealed, and 
not true because unreasonable. 

The figment, that although the Bible contains a 
revelation it is not that revelation, is in fact a rejec- 
tion of revelation ; for we shall need a new revela- 
tion to inform us how much of the Scriptures are 
infallibly true ; unless, indeed, we believe Unitarian 
writers have been inspired to do this needful work, 
for no other men, calling themselves Christians, 
have presumed to draw the line between the truth 
and the errors of that Scripture, all of which has 
been given by inspiration of God. His Holiness at 
Rome may now hide his diminished head, for* he 



268 



SERMONS. 



only claims to give infallibly the sense of the Scrip- 
tures ; these improved Popes have undertaken to 
correct the errors and mistakes of the inspired 
writers, that is, of the Holy Spirit himself ! 

§ 3. Dr. Channing gives a review of the dis- 
tinguishing features of Unitarianism : " That there 
is One God, even the Father; and that Jesus Christ 
is not this one God, but his son and messenger, 
who derived all his powers and glories from the 
Universal Parent, and who came into the world not 
to claim supreme homage for himself, but to carry 
up the soul to his Father, as the Only Divine Per- 
son, the Only Ultimate Object of religious wor- 
ship." 

Half of this brief confession of faith consists of 
negatives — that there is not more than one Person 
in the Godhead, and that Jesus Christ is not this 
one God, even the Father, nor the ultimate object 
of religious worship. The second negative is Sa- 
bellianism, which Trinitarians reject : in opposi- 
tion to the first, they affirm that there are three 
co-equal Divine Persons in the one God ; and to 
the last, that Jesus Christ the Son is, equally with 
the Father and the Holy Ghost, the ultimate object 
of religious worship. And yet, with all this opposi- 
tion of sentiment, Dr. Channing professes charity 
for Trinitarians, who, according to him, are Poly- 
theists and Idolaters ! 

" We do not mean," he says, " that we regard our 
peculiar views as essential to salvation but when 



THE TRUE RELIGION. 



269 



he tells us (pp. 33, 34) that the Trinitarian God is 
stern and unjust, doing wrong to his own creatures, 
he makes " it evident how little reason they have 
to credit " his professions of charity. If he can 
give the right hand of fellowship to those who 
worship, as he supposes, such a monster, what diffi- 
culty can he find in receiving to his fraternal em- 
brace the devil-worshippers of the East ? But if 
Unitarian charity can enclose in its ample embrace 
those who maintain principles so horrible, so con- 
tradictory, so blasphemous, no intelligent and pious 
Trinitarian can return the compliment, by recogniz- 
ing as a part of the Christian brotherhood those 
who profess such a medley of atheism and idolatry. 
" O my soul ! come not into their secret ; to their 
assembly, mine honor, be not thou united." But he 
undertakes to explain how persons of such contra- 
dictory sentiments may acknowledge one another 
as Christian brethren. And what is the solution of 
this difficulty ? Why, nothing but that Trinitarians 
should go over to Unitarianism ; should admit that 
they really do not believe their own system, and if 
the points of difference retain their places in their 
written creed, they be regarded in fact as things of 
no manner of importance. Indeed ! And do all 
his professions of charity amount to this, that to 
save their orthodoxy, in his sense of the term, he 
very kindly supposes that they have been from the 
beginning false witnesses, in testifying what they 
did not believe; or fools, by supposing they believed 



270 



SERMONS. 



what his superior discernment has discovered they 
neither could nor did believe ? Trinitarians have 
always contended for the doctrines in dispute, not 
only as true, but indispensable ; not only as having 
a place in the system of revealed religion, but the 
highest place ; not only as connected with practice, 
but inseparable from a truly Christian life. They 
can not, therefore, meet him on the ground he has 
assigned them, without yielding their claims to 
common honesty, or rejecting the testimony of 
their own consciousness. They are not willing to 
purchase his good opinion at such a price ; and if 
they were, he and his party would have little reason 
to congratulate themselves on such an accession of 
knaves or fools. 

II. The general argument of the discourse is 
thus stated : " I do not propose to prove the truth 
of Unitarianism by scriptural authorities, for this 
argument would exceed the limits of a sermon, but 
to show its superior tendency to form an elevated 
religious character." 

And how does Dr. Channing prove his point? 
By taking for granted, without an attempt at proof, 
that his notions of piety are true. This is nothing 
less than begging the question at the very beginning 
of his argument. By piety he means, " filial love 
and reverence towards God, habitual gratitude, 
cheerful trust, ready obedience, and though last, 
not least, an imitation of the ever-active and un- 
bounded benevolence of the Creator." Now it is 



THE TRUE RELIGION: 



271 



perfectly obvious that this definition, according to 
the system of its author, contains ideas essentially 
different from those of Trinitarians on the same 
general subject. The objects of pious affections 
in the two systems are contradictory; and con- 
sequently the nature, and reasons, and causes of 
piety are different and contrary. When, therefore, 
Dr. Channing has shown that his doctrines are 
better calculated to promote piety, according to 
his idea of it, than the Trinitarian, he has shown 
what his opponents are not at all concerned to deny, 
that Unitarianism is better calculated to promote 
itself. The question, which of the two systems is 
the true one, remains untouched. The religion 
which this discourse approves, and shows the 
peculiar adaptation of the Unitarian scheme to 
promote, not only excludes everything which Trini- 
tarians account most essential to true religion, but 
it contains nothing against which a sober Deist 
would object. In their schemes there are a few 
points of difference : but as to their practical results 
on the characters of men, they aim at the same 
thing. A Deist may adopt fully Dr. Channing's 
definition of piety, and in the very sense of its 
author ; for they are agreed respecting the object 
of worship, the ground of hope, and the supreme 
rule of faith and of life ; in all of which they are 
both in perfect opposition to Trinitarians. To make 
the argument of the discourse a good one, it 
would be necessary to prove that the author's ideas 



272 



SERMONS. 



of religious character are correct; that Unitarian 
piety is true piety : otherwise, whatever tendency it 
may be shown to have to form a religious character 
of its own kind, it proves nothing for the truth of 
his system. Let the character have attained all the 
perfection which that system aims to give it, still, 
in the view of Trinitarians, the person who sustains 
it is destitute of genuine religion ; an alien from 
the commonwealth of Israel, a stranger to the cove- 
nants of promise, without God, without Christ, 
and without hope in the world. Whatever might 
be his uprightness and benevolence toward his 
fellow-men, and however tender and solemn and 
spiritual his affections toward the God of his own 
mental creation, he would be regarded by the true 
God as an obstinate rebel, who refused to be taught 
by the declaration of the Divine word, any further 
than appeared to himself reasonable and right ; 
who, by refusing to honor the Son, even as the 
Father, refused to honor the Father that sent him, 
and, by denying the personality and divinity of the 
Holy Spirit, refused to be a temple of the Holy 
Ghost and dedicated to his glory ; who rejected 
with contempt and abhorrence God's plan of recon- 
ciliation, and insisted on being saved in a way of 
his own, presumptuously trusting on his mercy with- 
out any regard to the satisfaction of his justice 
or the honor of his government, even turning upon 
God and charging him with cruelty and injustice 
to his creatures. Until Trinitarianism shall first 



THE TRUE RELIGION. 



273 



have been proved to be false, a system which has 
such tendencies as these can not be admitted to 
deserve the name of Christian, much less that of the 
most perfect form of Christianity itself. 

Dr. Channing also takes for granted, what Trini- 
tarians never did, and while they believe their own 
system never can concede, that which party soever 
in this controversy is wrong, their error is not 
ruinous, and denounces those who think otherwise, 
that is, the whole body of Trinitarians, as possessing 
" the very spirit of antichrist " (p. 6). And yet 
he is assured that all that is essential to true 
religion is " attained and accepted under all the 
forms of Christianity," even where that " worst of 
all the delusions of popery and protestantism " is 
avowed. 

He has drawn deeply upon the credulity of his 
readers, when he supposed they would swallow, 
upon the authority of his dictum, an absurdity so 
gross. 

Then may there be communion between light 
and darkness, Christ and antichrist, and he that 
believeth and an infidel. On the other hand, Trini- 
tarians believe that the controversy respects the very 
essentials of true religion ; that it is not a contest 
between two forms of genuine Christianity, which is 
the more pure and efficient, but between two contra- 
dictory religions, which of them is true and which 
is false; not a matter to be decided by comparing 
different degrees in things in the same kind, but by 



274 



SERMONS. 



contrasting opposites and then deciding, by an ap- 
proved test, which is genuine and which is spurious. 
Whether Dr. Channing or his opponents are correct 
on this point, he had no right to take for granted 
a position so important as completely to shift the 
ground of argument, and imply a surrender of the 
Trinitarian cause ; for from that common religion, 
which he supposes it to be the object of both 
systems to produce, he excludes every Trini- 
tarian peculiarity, and when he has done so his 
own system remains undisputed master of the 
field. " ' • 

The piety which refuses divine honors to the Son 
and Holy Spirit ; which rejects the infinite atone- 
ment of the one, and the new creation to a holy 
life of the other ; which, on the supposition that 
God is, and has done, what his own word unequivo- 
cally ascribes to him, presumes to arraign and con- 
demn him as unmerciful and unjust — Trinitarians 
are free to admit, will be much better promoted by 
Dr. Channing's system than by theirs ; for while 
they retain their reverence for the Holy Oracles, 
such piety will always appear to their solemn view 
no better than avowed rebellion against the King 
of kings. Dr. Channing had a right to choose his 
own ground ; but if he had at command any num- 
ber of scriptural authorities to prove the truth of 
Unitarianism, he might have a better use of his 
discretion than to set them aside for the sake of 
spreading before the public eye so base a sophism. 



THE TRUE RELIGION. 



275 



Reduced to syllogistic form, his argument would 
stand thus : 

Major — That system which best promotes piety, 
meaning of course, Unitarian piety, is the true 
system. 

Minor — But Unitarianisrn is best calculated to pro- 
mote Unitarian piety. 

Conclusion — Therefore Unitarianisrn is the true 
system. 

The error, as has been shown, is in the major 
proposition, which takes for granted the very point 
in debate, that the Unitarian is the true religion, 
or that all that is essential to true religion is held by 
both systems in common. The latter assumption, 
which makes it a non-essential whether the divinity 
and atonement of the Son, and the divinity and 
personality of the Holy Spirit, with their corre- 
sponding doctrines, be believed or blasphemed, is as 
firmly denied by Trinitarians as the former ; indeed 
it amounts to the same thing with the former, for 
by rejecting the essential doctrines of Trinitarianism 
there is nothing left as common ground but Uni- 
tarianisrn itself. 

The nine arguments that follow in Dr. Channing's 
discourse are all in support of the minor proposi- 
tion, that Unitarianisrn is best calculated to pro- 
mote Unitarian piety. Were it granted that he had 
fairly proved his point, he would not have advanced 
by one hair's-breadth towards the determination of 
the great questions at issue. His general argument 



276 



SERMONS. 



therefore may be dismissed as unfit service: but it 
will be proper to examine the particular arguments 
by which he endeavors to prop it. 

§ 1. " Unitarianism is a system most favorable to 
piety, because it presents to the mind one, and 
only one, infinite Person, to whom supreme homage 
is to be paid." Let it be remembered, that the 
piety here spoken of is exclusively Unitarian ; for, 
although Dr. Channing told us (p. 8) that he did 
not regard his peculiar views as essential to salva- 
tion, he has fairly contradicted himself in this 
argument by declaring the doctrine of one, and 
only one, infinite Father, that fundamental truth. 
That the foundation is not essential to the building, 
is an idea that would never enter the head of any 
man not accustomed, like speculating theologians, 
to build castles in the air. 

Let it be admitted * that the Unitarian doctrine 
is calculated to make a stronger impression of itself 
upon the mind, what then? Is it therefore true? 
A vast chasm must be filled up in the reasoning 
before that conclusion shall be reached. On the 
other hand, Trinitarians believe that no degree 
of impression produced by the idea of only one 
Divine Person, to the exclusion of the Son and 

* This admission is made only for the sake of the argument ; 
for by the confession of the most eminent Unitarian writers, it 
is contradicted by facts. See Fuller's Letters : " The Calvin- 
istic and Socinian Systems Examined and Compared as to their 
Practical Tendency." 



THE TRUE RELIGION. 



277 



Holy Spirit, amounts to any true piety at all. Dr. 
Channing can not advance a single step without 
begging the question. All that can be said is, that 
the Unitarian is more religious in his way than the 
Trinitarian. Whose is the right way is still sub 
judice. 

If the truth of things is to be determined by the 
strength of impression, then there are degrees of 
reality ; that is, it may be true that there is a 
Trinity, for this doctrine makes some impression 
on Trinitarians ; and at the same time more true 
that there is none, and as the more carries it over 
the less, therefore there is no Trinity. According 
this reasoning, there is a sun in summer, but none 
in winter, because the impression he makes is 
greater in summer. Again, the things of this 
world make a greater impression of their reality 
upon most of its inhabitants than those of the 
world to come, therefore this argument proves the 
mortal deist right. 

Dr. Channing objects to Trinitarianism, that by 
multiplying infinite objects for the heart, it dis- 
tracts it ; and argues that " to scatter the attention 
among three equal persons is to impair the power 
of each. The more strict and absolute the unity 
of God, the more easily and intimately all the 
impressions and emotions of piety flow together, 
and are condensed into one glowing thought, one 
thrilling love." But if it be consistent with " the 
principles of our nature that the different impres- 



278 



SERMONS. 



sions and emotions of piety " should flow together 
and be condensed into one glowing thought, one 
thrilling love, why should it not be consistent with 
the same principles that the different emotions pro- 
duced by the Divine Persons in the parts they 
severally act in the work of our salvation, should 
unite in one harmonious movement of the whole 
man in admiration, love, and devoted obedience to 
the Triune God? If multiplying infinite person- 
alities in the one Divine Nature must " distract " 
the heart, what effect will it have to multiply in- 
finite attributes in the one Divine Person? To be 
consistent with himself in this argument, Dr. Chan- 
ning ought to reject every infinite attribute but 
one; otherwise he " has reason to tremble," lest, 
in giving to God the honor which is due to one of 
these attributes, he should withhold from him what 
is due to another. 

§ 2. " Unitarianism is the system most favorable 
to piety, because it holds forth and preserves in- 
violate the spirituality of God." That God is a 
Spirit, and that he has given us no visible similitude 
of himself, Dr. Channing does condescend to prove 
from Scripture. But what has he proved against 
Trinitarians? Do they deny these things, or say 
that the manhood of Christ Jesus is an image of 
the invisible God ? They do not. His argument 
on this point is sheer misrepresentation. Trinita- 
rians neither teach nor believe that the spirituality 
of God is at all materialized by the union of human 



THE TRUE RELIGION. 



279 



nature to the Divine in the person of Emmanuel — 
the Word made flesh ; nor that the manhood of 
Christ is at all the object of worship. Whatever 
incongruity may belong to this subject in the minds 
of those who hate the light, Trinitarians find no 
difficulty in distinguishing between the Divine 
nature of the Redeemer, by virtue of which he is 
" God over all, blessed forever," and therefore the 
object of worship, and his human nature, " made 
of the seed of David according to the flesh." 

The Son assumed our nature for a different pur- 
pose altogether from that which Dr. Channing 
assigns. He " who being in the form of God, thought 
it not robbery to be equal with God, but made him- 
self of no reputation, was made in the likeness of 
men, and was found in fashion as a man [not to ex- 
plain the Divine nature by the human], but that he 
might be obedient unto death, even the death of the 
cross." — Phil, ii., 6, 7, 8. 

After all, his inference is only connected with his 
premises by a " may be said," a phrase which accord- 
ing to Dr. Channing himself, (p. 39) is vox et preterea 
nihil ; all that it is employed to convey " goes out — 
in words." The resemblance which he sees between 
the Incarnation of the Son and " the mythology of 
the rudest pagans," if there be any, may, for aught 
he knows, be the resemblance between the truth and 
rudest counterfeit. How a " pious Jew, in the twi- 
light of the Mosaic religion," would have regarded 
this doctrine, is a question which can only be deter- 



280 



SERMONS. 



mined by the authority of the Bible, and this is a 
tribunal to which Dr. Channing has not thought 
proper to refer his cause. He has an indisputable 
right, however, to the authority of his allies, the 
modern Jews, Mahometans, and Deists, the open 
enemies of the whole Christian religion. 

§ 3. " Unitarianism is the system most favorable 
to piety (to wit, Unitarian piety), because it pre- 
sents a distinct and intelligible object of worship, 
a being whose nature, whilst inexpressibly sublime, 
is yet simple and suited to human apprehension." 
Because it presents the Unitarian idea of God, there- 
fore, it is most favorably to what kind of piety ? 
Evidently Unitarian alone. According to this argu- 
ment (which, if it prove anything, must do so, not 
through the stale sophism which has been exposed, 
but by its direct bearing on the truth of religion), 
those who worship gods of wood and stone, Dagon, 
or Vishnoo, or Juggernaut, have the advantage in 
distinctness and intelligibility over the Unitarians, 
and have therefore a better system. 

But when Unitarians claim, as an advantage of 
their system, that their God is intelligible, they 
strip him of all the incommunicable attributes of 
divinity, eternity, omnipresence, omniscience, omni- 
potence, etc. ; or, if they do not bring him down to 
the measure of their necessarily limited conceptions, 
they arrogantly presume to grasp infinities. Dr. 
Channing himself admits respecting his own system 
(p. 40) that its truths can not be fully comprehended ; 



THE TRUE RELIGION. 



281 



that is, it is wholly intelligible, but can be compre- 
hended only as in part. If this is not a contradic- 
tion, it will require a hair-splitting distinguisher to 
tell the difference. He admits again, " There is no 
object in nature or religion, which has not innumera- 
ble connections and relations beyond our grasp of 
thought." And yet he pretends to comprehend the 
infinite God so fully, as to decide peremptorily, in the 
face of the Scriptures, that he does not sustain the 
relations of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as implied 
in the doctrine of the Trinity. 

The simplicity of which Unitarians boast is a very 
doubtful evidence of truth. The ancient physics, 
which referred all matter to the four primitive ele- 
ments, earth, air, fire, and water, had the advantage 
of simplicity over the present system, which reckons 
more than forty primitive substances ; but who would 
stake his character on the assertion, that therefore 
it was more true. 

But Dr. Channing pronounces the doctrine of the 
Trinity " misty, incongruous, contradictory." The 
first epithet might have been spared, inasmuch as 
he admits that the truths of his own system can not 
be fully comprehended ; of course those parts of 
them which are beyond his comprehension must 
appear " misty " even to his clear eye. In a former 
part of this argument, he was understood to claim 
for his system an intelligibility which entirely ex- 
cludes its opposite ; but if he only means that it is 
partly intelligible, then it is partly unintelligible. 



282 



SERMON'S. 



Thus has this champion of Unitarianism admitted 
once and again, with respect to his own doctrines, all 
that Trinitarians allow in relation to theirs : that the 
facts they involve are to us, in great part, incompre- 
hensible. And so is everything within and around 
us. When this proud objector can tell us how a 
volition moves the hand, or how God can be perfectly 
present in every place at the same time and absent 
from none, it will be time enough to triumph over 
Trinitarians, w T ho do not pretend to know more, and 
who are not willing to know less, respecting the 
most incomprehensible of all beings, the self-existent 
Source of all other beings, than he has thought fit 
to reveal. 

If this then be a mere question of degrees, the 
Trinitarian system has the advantage, for it fills a 
much greater sphere in the world of religious truth. 
And if it has more dark places, it has many more 
bright ones, for there is something knowable in its 
every doctrine, even the most mysterious. 

But the heaviest charge against the Trinity is that 
it is contradictory. This is the Unitarian Achilles, 
who is to be seen foaming and raging on almost 
every point of the field of battle. But he is not 
quite invulnerable. 

It has been seen, and conceded on all hands, that 
our knowledge on every subject is imperfect ; that 
we must reach sooner or later a ne plus ultra to the 
operation of our minds. This contradiction then, 
if it exist, must be found within the limits of our 



THE TRUE RELIGION. 



283 



knowledge, or in the region of inscrutable things. 
In the latter division, the contradiction must either 
be taken for granted, or given up ; for it is impossi- 
ble to prove that it does or does not exist — and for 
this plain reason : we know nothing about the sub- 
ject. It is necessary to have accurate and adequate 
conceptions of the terms in a proportion to de- 
termine whether they agree or are opposed to each 
other. But in this department we have no positive 
ideas at all. The debate, then, is narrowed withm 
the bounds of our knowledge. What, then, do we 
know of the Trinity which involves a contradiction ? 

We know from the Scriptures that there is but 
one God, possessing all possible perfection and 
glory. We also know that in this one God there is 
a plurality, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, sustaining 
different relations among themselves and towards 
men, which in a sense of approximation, not of accu- 
rate description, we call persons, because personal 
attributes and acts are ascribed to them. Now, 
what contradiction is here? There is none in the 
terms. We do not say that three Gods are one God, 
or three persons are one person, or that God is three 
in the same sense that he is one. Nor is there any in 
the ideas. When we say that the Father is God, and 
the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, we do 
not mean that they are separate and distinct divini- 
ties, but that each of them possesses, in common 
with others, the nature, and attributes, and glory of 
God. Do you ask how can these things be? We 



284 



SERMONS. 



answer — the facts only are revealed, and therefore 
known ; the mode is not, and is therefore among the 
secret things which belong unto the Lord. But it 
is said, this God is " a strange being unlike our own 
minds." He would not be the God of the Scriptures 
if he were not, in many respects, unlike his creatures. 
To deny this, is to take away the principal reason 
against image-worship. Besides, what is there in 
our own minds like self-existence, omniscience, or 
any other incommunicable perfection of God ? Will 
Dr. Channing deny these because he can not find 
anything like them in created minds? And so this 
vaunted argument turns out to be a mere unsup- 
ported assertion. 

The error in this objection originates in the pov- 
erty of language, and men's not " refining their con- 
ceptions of the personalities and unity of God, 
separating from him whatever is limited and imper- 
fect," in the ideas conveyed by these terms in their 
application to God. Hence, when they apply to 
him their gross and limited ideas of person, derived 
from themselves and the creatures around them, 
without correcting their conceptions by what is 
peculiar to the Divine Being, the unity is contra- 
dicted. And what is this peculiarity? Why, that 
these personalities are of such a kind as to consist 
with the unity of God. An angel might have said 
at the creation of man, that the unity of his person 
and the plurality of his natures was a contradiction, 
because he had never known unity of person before 



THE TRUE RELIGION. 



to consist with more than one nature, with as much 
reason as men now account the unity of God con- 
tradicted by the plurality of persons because they 
have never known unity of nature to consist with 
more than one person. The only difference would 
have been, that the angel called that a contradiction 
which he could not deny to be a fact ; rational 
Christians contradict the testimony of God. 

They would contradict themselves, were they to 
apply the same rule of reasoning to the attributes 
which themselves acknowledge. Ask a Unitarian 
why he believes that God is omnipresent and eter- 
nal? He will tell you, because the evidence of the 
fact is conclusive. For the same general reason we 
believe the Trinity. Ask him again : " Do you 
fully comprehend these facts? Can your mind 
grasp the whole idea of an Infinite Being? He will 
answer, No. Pursue your inquiries : " Can you ap- 
ply your limited and inadequate ideas to God, and 
reason from them, without contradicting his bound- 
less nature and attributes?" If he is not willing to 
give a negative to this question, it can easily be 
proved that he ought. Let any one try the force 
of his mind in comprehending infinite duration, and 
he will soon find that his utmost stretch of thought 
is made up of limited portions of duration, which 
must always fall infinitely short of eternity. Let 
him apply his ideas of eternity to the life-time of 
the Almighty, and, measuring backward in eternity 
past, he will come to a point where God was not ; 



286 



SERMONS. 



and forwards, in eternity to come, he will reach a 
period where the Eternal will cease to be. 

By the absurdity of such reasoning in this case, we 
may see it in every other. And the same rule of 
right reasoning, which removes contradiction from 
the doctrine of the attributes, will clear it away 
from the doctrine of the Trinity. 

4. " Unitarianism promotes a fervent and enlight- 
ened piety, by asserting the absolute and unbounded 
perfection of God's character." In this argument 
Dr. Charming proceeds to reason in the same un- 
philosophical manner as has been exposed in the 
former. He will persist in attaching precisely the 
same ideas of person to the Father, Son, and Holy 
Spirit, as he is in the habit of attaching to limited 
beings. Hence he brings up again the misrepre- 
sentation that Trinitarians believe in three different 
Gods. Now, this manner of reasoning on things 
too high for us, as is everything peculiar to God, is 
utterly inconsistent with the modesty of true 
science, and, if carried out to its legitimate results, 
will not stop short of blank atheism or gross idol- 
atry. 

Try it on the omnipresence of God. We have no 
ideas of the presence of an agent, without confining 
him to the sphere of his operations, and excluding 
him from all other space. What positive concep- 
tion can you form, then, of his presence in every 
point of space, without restoring the pagan mythol- 
ogy, and peopling the universe with innumerable 



THE TRUE RELIGION. 



287 



multitudes of gods? Or if you chose to conceive 
of it as an extended substance, filling all space, al- 
though that conception no creature can adequately 
form, yet still on that supposition you must, by ex- 
tending, divide and weaken your God ; so that only 
a part of his being, and a limited knowledge and 
power, can be exercised in any particular place, or 
you invest every point in this boundless extension 
with every other attribute of God. 

This wily reasoner brings into play the two great 
instruments of his art — begging the question, and 
changing the ground of argument. He takes for 
granted, that the distinction of persons in the one 
God is a nullity ; and then, supposing that God is 
one person, he infers that to add to him any other 
persons is superfluous, or derogates from his glory, 
by dividing it with him : whereas the very point in 
dispute is, whether there are in the one God three 
equal and undivided persons, each of whom pos- 
sesses, not separately and exclusively, but in com- 
mon with the others, the attributes of divinity. 
The Trinitarian system does present one grand and 
glorious object of worship — the One Jehovah, 
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — with the inexpressi- 
ble advantage over the Unitarian, that all the moral 
attributes of God are displayed in a glorious har- 
mony : whilst in that of the Unitarian, his holiness, 
justice, and truth are outraged, to make way for his 
mercy. Nay more ; with all its vaporing, the 
Unitarian scheme strips the character of God even 



288 SERMONS. 



of the attribute of mercy ; for if it be not right to 
punish the transgressor, his impunity is a matter of 
debt. 

Dr. Channing does Calvinism the honor of mak- 
ing it the object of his bitterest hate. To be singled 
out from among all the battalions of the grand 
army of Emmanuel, as the worthiest mark for his 
heaviest artillery, is a strong testimony from the 
common enemy that their mode of warfare is the 
most galling, or that the positions they occupy are 
the most dangerous to his cause. 

§ 5. " Unitarianism is peculiarly favorable to 
piety, because it accords with nature, with the 
world around and the world within us." As Trini- 
tarians derive their doctrine from revelation alone, 
they are not concerned to prove that it is taught 
by nature : they are not willing to admit that reve- 
lation can not go beyond the sphere of nature, and 
teach us what else we had never known. To grant 
this, would be to meet the Deists more than half- 
way ; it would be to own that revelation is not 
necessary. Nature, however, gives no evidence 
against the Trinity. All the unity of design which 
it exhibits proves no more than the unity of coun- 
sel, operation, and nature of the Triune God. 
"Trinitarianism," he says, " is a confused system, 
shut up in a few texts," " and those so dark, that 
the gifted minds of Milton, Newton, and Locke 
could not find it there." If it had been revealed 
but once or twice, that were enough to satisfy any 



THE TRUE RELIGION. 



289 



who are not too wise to be taught of God. But 
in truth these texts are neither few nor dark : they 
stud the firmament of revelation, like stars for 
number and for brightness. Instead of escaping 
the perception of such gifted minds as those of 
Milton, Newton, and Locke, any man of common 
understanding must be grossly ignorant, or willfully 
blind, who does not see in them these first princi- 
ples of the oracles of God. If those distinguished 
men, by the authority of whose names Dr. Chan- 
ning would support his cause, were, as he insin- 
uates, Unitarian in their sentiments, then they 
were destitute of common honesty, for they lived 
and died in the communion of the Church of Eng- 
land,* one of the most prominent defenders of the 
Trinitarian doctrines. 

Those who are so defective in the moral quali- 
fications of good witnesses are not much to be 
relied on, however great their intellectual strength. 
Such gross hypocrites are no advantage to any 
cause but that of wickedness ; else Satan himself 
may be an honor to the cause he espouses, when 
he chooses to appear as an angel of light, for in 



* To this remark Milton is an exception. He was no church- 
man ; but it appears " he was not tainted with an heretical 
peculiarity of sentiment " while he lived, nor when Johnson 
wrote the Lives of the Poets. The posthumous work lately 
ascribed to him, if authentic, is at variance with his acknowl- 
edged writings, and only proves his authority to be nothing 
worth. 



290 



SERMONS. 



intellect he surpasses them, and his moral charac- 
ter is the antitype of theirs. Unitarians ought to 
have good evidence for assertions which involve so 
heavy a charge against men whose characters have 
come down to posterity with honor. How much 
credit is due to such assertions, may be seen by 
contrasting them with their own writings and their 
history. In showing how little reason Unitarians 
have to plume themselves on the authority of these 
great names, Trinitarians do not stake their cause 
on any human authority : their faith stands not in 
the wisdom of men, but of God. 

Milton, in his Paradise Lost, thus sublimely 
sings : 

" Because thou hast, though throned in highest bliss, 
Equal to God, and equally enjoying 
Godlike fruition." 

******* 

" Here shalt thou incarnate ; here shalt reign 
Both God and man, Son both of God and man ! " 

—Book HI. 

Locke in his Paraphrase on 1 Cor. x. 9, thus 
writes: " Neither let us provoke Christ, as some 
of them provoked, and were destroyed by ser- 
pents." — chap, xii., ver. 1 1., "All which gifts are 
wrought in believers by one and the same Spirit, dis- 
tributing to every one in particular as he thinks fit," 
compared with verse 6: "It is the same God that 
works all these extraordinary gifts in every one that 
has them." Note on verse 10 : " Prophecy com- 



THE TRUE RELIGION. 



291 



prehends these three things: prediction, singing by 
the dictate of the Spirit and understanding, and ex- 
plaining the mysterious hidden sense of Scripture, 
by an immediate illumination and motion of the 
Spirit." 

Note on Romans, chap, i, ver. 4 : " According to 
the spirit of holiness, is here manifestly opposed to, 
according to the flesh, in the foregoing verse ; and 
so must mean that pure and spiritual part in him, 
which by divine extraction he had immediately from 
God." 

These quotations prove that their authors had 
seen somewhere the doctrines of the divinity and 
two natures of Christ, and the personality and 
divinity of the Holy Spirit. How desperate the 
cause which forces its defenders to exhume the 
illustrious dead, and suborn them to give testimony 
in favor of Unitarianism, in direct contradiction to 
their writings when alive. Nay, the very day be- 
fore Locke died, " he very particularly exhorted all 
about him to read the holy Scriptures, exalting the 
love of God shown to man in justifying him by faith 
in Jesus Christ ; and returning him special thanks 
for having called him to the knowledge of that 
Divine Saviour." — [Simpson's Plea. 

Of Newton it is stated [Nich. Enc. Brit.] : " He 
was firmly attached to the Church of England, 
and that book which he studied with the greatest 
application was the Bible." Does this look like 
Unitarianism. 



292 



SERMONS. 



§ 6. " Unitarianism favors piety, by opening the 
mind to new and ever enlarging views of God." 

Dr. Channing's positions on this subject rest on 
his own unsupported assertions. It has not been 
and can not be shown, that any one legitimate 
deduction of reason, drawn from the works of 
creation and providence, contravenes any one Trini- 
tarian peculiarity. As far as the testimony of crea- 
tion and providence goes, it corroborates the Trini- 
tarian doctrines. When these deponents close their 
evidence, and revelation speaks alone, he who will 
not believe its witness, makes God a liar. The 
greatest liar in the community will be believed, 
when he testifies what is known from other sources 
to be true. Here then is the precise point of dif- 
ference between us : Trinitarians receive the Scrip- 
tures as the highest, clearest, conclusive evidence on 
the great subjects of religion; Unitarians condescend 
to receive them when their reason testifies the same 
things ; but whenever there is an appearance of con- 
trariety, they utterly refuse to submit to the declar- 
ations of the Word of God, however clear and un- 
equivocal. What do they more than Deists or 
Atheists themselves? 

It is not true, that Trinitarianism disinclines the 
mind to bright and enlarged views of God's works. 
These works lose none of their interest and glory to 
the pious Trinitarian, whose mind is possessed with 
the delightful persuasion, that he who garnished the 
heavens with beauty is his Redeemer from eternal 



THE TRUE RELIGION. 



2 93 



death. Never does this world appear in such a 
radiancy as when viewed as the theater on which 
were exhibited the wonders of redeeming mercy, 
which things the angels desire to look into. 

The Trinity, Incarnation, and Substitution, it is 
objected, are doctrines " different from the teaching 
of the Universe." The man who never passed the 
boundaries of his native land knows nothing, either 
by sense or reason, of any other countries. He 
would act like a Unitarian, were he to refuse infor- 
mation derived from the testimony of others, but 
what would become of the enlargement of his views 
of the works of creation ? 

Dr. Channing says that " God's vicegerent in the 
human soul pronounces it a crime to lay the penal- 
ties of vice on the pure and unoffending." This vice- 
gerent must be rightly informed, or it will be a blind 
leader of the blind. Paul verily thought that he 
ought to do many things contrary to the name of 
Jesus of Nazareth. The objection to the vicarious 
sufferings of Christ either changes the ground of 
argument, or begs the question. If by the unoffend- 
ing is meant a person noway connected or identified 
in law with the original offender, this is an entirely 
different question from the one in debate. In 
this sense it is wrong to punish the unoffending in- 
stead of the guilty. But if by the unoffending is 
meant one who, although originally clear, voluntar- 
ily assumes the obligations of another, or on whom, 
by the authority of God, his obligations are laid, it is 



294 



SERMONS. 



a mere gratuitous assumption to say that it is a 
crime to lay upon htm, who is thus representatively 
guilty, the penalties of the original offender. This 
assertion condemns and contradicts the dispensations 
of Providence towards all communities. " Quidquid 
delirant reges plectuntur achivi ": Rulers rave, and 
the people suffer for it. David numbers the people, 
and the nation of Israel is visited with the pesti- 
lence. It is at war with an approved principle of 
civil society : One man, originally free, becomes 
surety for another, and is justly held accountable 
for his debts. 

Trinitarianism is charged with throwing a gloom i 
over God's works, aggravating the miseries of life, 
and exaggerating the sins of man. This represen- 
tation supposes that the doctrines of man's depravity 
and guilt by nature, are not true. If those doctrines 
are true, as reason and Scripture both declare, it will 
be hard to give a picture of the condition of man by 
nature, more deeply shaded than the truth. The 
wretch in whose veins a deadly poison rankles has 
much reason for gloom until he finds an antidote. 
The culprit under sentence of death for his crimes 
can find little enjoyment in the beauties of creation, 
until he obtains a pardon. 

Who, then, is the real friend of man ? he who 
would show him his awful condition, and warn him 
of his danger, that he might flee from the wrath to 
come ; or he would persuade him that his condition 
is comfortable, though he never experienced the re- 



THE TRUE RELIGION. 



2 9S 



newing of the Holy Ghost, and that there is no dan- 
ger, though he never obtained redemption through 
the blood of Christ? 

As these are fundamental doctrines in this contro- 
versy, Dr. Channing has alluded to some features in 
the character and condition of man, calculated to dis- 
credit them, as he supposes, in the eyes of the world. 
Men may, through the influence of habit derived from 
a truly Christian stock, of education, a happy consti- 
tutional temperament, and self-love, possess and ex- 
hibit many of the virtues which are the stability and 
ornament of society, and at the same time fce utterly 
destitute of those affections, and that obedience to- 
ward God, which are the soul of piety. Although 
no man deserves to be accounted truly religious, 
who does not exemplify in his daily walk that mor- 
ality which is current and highly esteemed among 
men : yet he may attract the confidence of men by 
his uprightness and truth, and win their love by his 
kind and gentle deportment, while God is not in 
all his thoughts, and in his heart, he says to his 
Maker : " Depart from me, for I desire not the 
knowledge of thy ways." The fear and the love of 
God may be unknown, as principles of his conduct ; 
Jehovah may be dethroned from the dominion of 
his heart, and the idol mammon, or false honor, or 
fleshly delights, impiously exalted and most de- 
voutly worshiped and served in his place. Sup- 
pose a family of children, affectionately attentive to 
each other's comfort, and living in harmony and 



296 SERMONS. 



mutual good offices, whilst with one consent they 
were deaf to the voice of parental authority, and 
utterly destitute of love to the father that begat 
them, and watched over them, and provided for 
them, and supplied them with those enjoyments 
with which they were daily regaling themselves and 
each other ; would not the common sense of man- 
kind pronounce them dead to the duties of piety ? 
Would it not, with all their kindness to each other, 
pronounce them a company of vile ingrates, not fit 
to live ? Apply this illustration, which is far more 
favorable to Unitarian views than the real case, to 
the conduct of men in relation to their Creator, and 
it will convict them of rebellion against the author- 
ity of God — an entire want of love to him, and re- 
gard to his glory, and gratitude for his benefit ; and 
whenever his authority and his claims cross their 
inclinations, their hearts rise in positive enmity 
against him. And does not such a total dereliction 
of moral principle in their treatment of God himself 
prove the human race awfully depraved, and dead in 
sin ? Now, that men are by nature alienated from 
the life of God is evident from the history of the 
world. Except those parts which have been illumi- 
nated by a revelation from heaven, darkness covers 
the earth and gross darkness the people. Idolatry 
and atheism, in various forms, have divided the 
world between them : and even in Christian countries 
with respect to most of their inhabitants, the light 
shineth in darkness, and the darkness receiveth it 



THE TRUE RELIGION. 



297 



not. They live as habitually indifferent to God ; 
as satisfied in the entire absence of all fellowship 
with him, as if he were what an apostle calls the 
idols of the heathen, a " nothing in the world." 
Even those who have received the truth in the love 
of it, are decided witnesses of human depravity. 
They have all been brought from darkness to light 
and from the power of Satan unto God ; and they 
still see in themselves so much of opposition to the 
will of God, as keeps alive the humbling convic- 
tion, that " in them that is in their flesh (or nature 
as far as yet unrenewed by the Divine Spirit), 
dwelleth no good thing." Indeed, so complete and 
overwhelming is the proof on this point, that there 
is not the slightest set-off against it. 

To counterbalance the worship of the sun and 
moon, of deified men, 

" Gods partial, changeful, passionate, unjust, 
Whose attributes were rage, revenge, and lust," 

infidelity can not produce a solitary instance of a 
human being, save the worshipers of the God of 
the Bible, who answered the end of his existence, 
made the will of the true God the rule of his life, 
the glory of God his end, and the enjoyment of the 
Divine favor and fellowship the chief good of his 
existence. 

Even Socrates, the boast of heathen antiquity, 
denied, on his trial, that he was opposed to the 
worship of the gods of his country : and the last 



298 



SERMONS. 



act of his life was an act of idolatry.* And the 
present state of the world, in lands not Christian, is 
no better than the former. Superstition, idolatry, 
impiety, and practical if not avowed atheism, 
have spread their baleful influence over every land. 
To every individual among them, Jehovah is an un- 
known God, save that the ambassadors of Christ 
have been made the honored instruments of turn- 
ing some of them from their dumb idols to serve 
the living God. Those very men themselves, who 
deny this doctrine, and abuse its propagators as 
slanderers of human nature, notwithstanding they 
live in the full blaze of gospel light, do give in their 
own conduct confirmation of the truth, only less 
strong than proof from Holy Writ. They are en- 
deavoring with all their ingenuity and might to 
put out the light of the world — to exterminate the 
religion of the Bible. While one party are opening 
their battery upon the outworks, another, under 
cover of friendship, are undermining the citadel. 
Whilst one is impudently engaged in spreading 
open infidelity, the other, pretending Christianity, 
is diligently endeavoring to divest our holy religion 
of its life and its glory. 

But if innumerable and indisputable facts in the 
history of man in every age, not only in the regions 
of barbarism, but where taste and literature and 
science have shed their brightest beams, convict 



*RolIin's Ancient History, book ix., chap. 4. 



THE TRUE RELIGION. 



299 



Unitarian infidelity of error, even on the most 
favorable position, that men were not naturally and 
originally disposed to wrong each other — what shall 
we say, seeing in truth they are disposed to wrong 
each other as well as God ; to violate the duties of 
the second table of the law as well as the first. 
How little does the history of the world contain 
besides a detail of its crimes ! Injustice, perfidy, 
murder, cruelty, and oppression blacken almost 
every page, Whence come the wars and fightings 
which have, in every age, set man against his 
brother, and turned our earth into a field of blood ? 
Come they not hence even of their lusts ? On this 
subject let us hear the account of Paul : not that it 
is supposed the authority of an apostle will have 
any weight with those who are previously deter- 
mined not to submit to his decision ; but because 
he presents, on the veracity of a witness quite un- 
impeachable, a clear and comprehensive view of 
the universal depravity of men, and traces its his- 
tory from the beginning. Rom. i., 28-32 : " As 
they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, 
God gave them over to a reprobate mind, , to do 
those things which are not convenient: being filled 
with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, 
covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, 
debate, deceit, malignity ; whisperers, backbiters, 
haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inven- 
tors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without 
understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural 



3°° 



SERMONS. 



affection, implacable, unmerciful : who, knowing 
the judgment of God, that they which commit such 
things are worthy of. death ; not only do the same, 
but have pleasure in them that do them." 

Unless in those places where the influence of 
Christianity has elevated the tone of general morals, 
purged away the grossness and smoothed the as- 
perity of the natural man, his inbred corruption 
breaks out in every species of abomination and 
crime. More than three-fourths of the world are 
at this moment sunk in idolatry, superstition, and 
all their attendant evils: and even in Christian 
countries, what an array of laws, and judgment- 
seats, and prisons, and penitentiaries, and gibbets, 
is necessary to restrain this depravity from sweep- 
ing, with hideous desolation, over the land. 

The natural evils to which man is subjected 
prove him a sinner, and that not in some exempt 
cases only, but universally. " Death passed upon all 
men, for that all have sinned," is not only the lan- 
guage of the Bible, but of right reason. No other 
credible account can be given of the fact, that man 
is born to trouble as the sparks that fly upward ; that 
from the cradle to the grave, in every stage of his 
existence, he endures afflictions till Death, the king 
of terrors, closes the scene! If a deadly taint of 
corruption have not pervaded the mass of human- 
kind, why do the innocent suffer? It is not re- 
quired by the justice of God, but forbidden by it ; 
for to inflict unmerited pain is the very essence of 



THE TRUE RELIGION. 



301 



injustice. It can do no good to those intelligences 
who look into the Divine administration of human 
affairs ; for it confounds the distinction between 
good and evil, by treating the righteous and the 
wicked alike. And surely it is the reverse of good- 
ness to inflict unnecessary misery on an innocent 
creature. It does not blunt the edge of this argu- 
ment to say that God can make up in another 
world for all the evil he inflicts upon the innocent 
in this ; for this makes the happiness of heaven a 
debt to them, and not a gift, and exhibits the God 
of glory making reparation to his own creatures for 
the injury he has done them. An error here is 
ruinous, for none will apply for the salvation re- 
vealed in the Scriptures, until he is persuaded that 
he needs it. He must be sensible of his bondage, 
before he will implore the aid of the Redeemer ; he 
must feel his sickness, ere he will apply to the 
Physician of souls. There is a quackery in theol- 
ogy as well as in physic, which Trinitarians care- 
fully avoid. Their theology obscures none of the 
tokens of God's love within and around us ; but 
would first restore man's nature to such a healthful 
state as would fit it for enjoyment, and secure his 
redemption of the forfeited title to an heirship of 
all things present and to come. 

§ 7. " Unitarianism promotes piety, by the high 
place which it assigns to piety in the character and 
work of Jesus Christ." 

" He was devoted to the Father's will, and is 



302 



SERMONS. 



therefore a good example. His office is to reveal 
the Father." 

The influence of the example of Christ is claimed 
by the Trinitarians on surely as good grounds as the 
Unitarians can urge, one of whose distinguished 
writers * declares : " The Unitarian doctrine is, that 
Jesus of Nazareth was a man, constituted in all re- 
spects like other men ; subject to the same infirm- 
ities, the same ignorance, prejudices, and frailties." 
Why such a man, or any mere man, should occupy 
a higher place than the angels that kept their first 
estate, — that excel in might, that do God's will, 
hearkening to the voice of his word, — it remains for 
Unitarians to explain. Indeed, if the sufferings of 
Christ do not include the wrath of God due to our 
sins, when he redeemed us from the curse of the 
law, being made a curse for us, no reason can be as- 
signed why the order of precedency should not be 
reversed, and Stephen, and thousands of his other 
followers, occupy a higher place in the hearts of 
Christians than he by whose name they are called ; 
for, on the Unitarian supposition that the cup 
which the Father put into his hand contained in 
it nothing of the horrors of that death which was 
the wages of our sin, in the prospect of which his 
nature recoiled, and in the endurance of which he 
uttered the doleful lamentation, " My God, my God, 
why hast than forsaken me ? " then their patience 

* Mr. Belsham, as quoted in the Appendix to Magee on 
Atonement, vol. ii., pp. 189-192. 



THE TRUE RELIGION. 



3°3 



was more unshrinking, their submission more un- 
complaining than his. From this consequence every 
truly Christian heart revolts, with whatever apathy 
it may be viewed by those whose steady aim and 
persevering effort it is to degrade the Son whom 
angels are commanded to worship, and all to honor 
even as they honor the Father. 

His official pre-eminence, on this scheme, is as 
great a mystery as his personal. If his divinity be 
denied, and his influence as a teacher be confined to 
his personal ministry and to what is recorded of his 
preaching, his pre-eminence is " a riddle " — for more 
souls appear to have been brought to the knowledge 
of the truth by the preaching of the apostles than 
by his ; and their writings, under the influence of 
the Spirit, are more extensive and full on the va- 
rious parts of the Christian doctrine than all that is 
extant of his sayings. 

His priestly office, agreeably to this system, con- 
sists only in intercession. If Dr. Channing relies on 
the intercession of one saint, he can certainly find 
no fault with the Roman Catholics for their reliance 
on the intercession of all saints, or any other saint. 
The difficulty with Trinitarians is, how these crea- 
tures can exercise a power peculiar to God, " search- 
ing the heart " to know what are the wants of those 
who desire their interest at the court of Heaven. 

Besides, on this scheme the intercession of Christ 
is not only superfluous, because everything can be 
accomplished without it, but it is an insult to the 



3°4 



SERMONS. 



Divine mercy, by implying that it needs anything 
to excite it to action. 

His office of King is turned into a figure of speech. 
" By the crown which he wears, we understand the 
eminence which he enjoys in the most beneficent 
work in the universe, that of bringing back the lost 
mind to the knowledge, love, and likeness of its 
Creator." This work he accomplishes by leaving 
us a holy example, and teaching " the doctrine of 
eternal life, and that the favor of God extended to 
the Gentiles equally with the Jews, and he was occa- 
sionally inspired to foretell future events." " But 
when Jesus or his apostles deliver opinions upon 
subjects unconnected with the object of their mis- 
sion, such opinions, and their reasonings upon them, 
are to be received with the same attention and cau- 
tion with those of other persons in similar circum- 
stances, of similar education, and with similar habits 
of thinking." It is egregious trifling with the un- 
derstandings and feelings of the Christian commu- 
nity for men who can thus fritter away the work and 
offices of the Redeemer into sounds, signifying 
nothing, to pretend either love or respect for his 
name. To those who believe the Scriptures there 
is no more difficulty (for all practical purposes) in 
understanding the person of Christ composed of 
two natures, divine and human, than the person 
of man composed of body and spirit. All the in- 
congruity and absurdity of which infidels of every 
class have ever complained is to be laid to the 



THE TRUE RELIGION. 



305 



charge of their own unbelief, and not of the glorious 
fact, or the luminous evidence which proves it. 

§ 8. " Unitarianism promotes piety, by meeting 
the wants of man as sinners": "these wants are, 
assurances of that mercy which seeks the lost, and 
blesses the returning child." 

To these views there are several insuperable ob- 
jections. In the first place, Unitarianism does not 
meet the wants of the sinner at all, by giving any 
solution to the problem, how God can be just and 
yet justify the ungodly. As to how a sinner can be 
delivered from his obligation to punishment, Dr. 
Channing does not give a syllable of instruction. 
He escapes from the difficulty of reconciling the 
claims of justice and mercy by denying the claims 
of justice altogether. Unitarianism " will not hear 
of a vindictive wrath in God, which must be 
quenched by blood : or of a justice which binds his 
mercy with an iron chain, until its demands are 
satisfied to the full." Of course it makes no pro- 
vision for the removal of the sinner's guilt. In 
their rage for simplicity, these Rational Christians 
not only reject all the Divine persons but one, and 
every moral attribute but love, but they deny the 
relations of Governor and Judge, and leave him only 
that of Father. The proprieties even of this ref- 
lation condemn their scheme ; for, according to the 
laws given by Moses, parents were required to give 
testimony against their own rebellious children, and 
deliver them up to death, not for their amendment, 



3o6 



SERMONS. 



but that others might hear and fear. (Deut. xxi., 
18-2 1.) Their views are in perfect contradiction to 
reason as well as Scripture. If men are moral 
agents, there must be a law and a penalty, a 
governor and a judge. A law without a penalty is 
a thing unknown ; and a law with a penalty which 
is never inflicted, even when the law is most atro- 
ciously violated, is a bugbear. Is God the Judge 
of all the earth ; is he the Governor among the 
nations ? Shall his throne, established in justice 
and judgment, have fellowship with iniquity, by 
proclaiming a universal amnesty for all manner and 
degree of crimes that have been or shall be com- 
mitted ? What would men think of a earthly 
ruler, who, instead of being a terror to evil-doers, 
an avenger to execute wrath, should uniformly par- 
don every transgressor of the laws ? Would he not 
be execrated by the injured and insulted commu- 
nity, as a betrayer of his trust, an encourager of 
wickedness, as joining in a conspiracy against the 
common good ? 

This scheme denies of God the attribute of jus- 
tice. " A God all mercy, is a God unjust." This 
point is clear, if " the gifted mind of Milton " 
understood it : 

" Die he, or Justice must, unless for him 
Some other able and as willing pay 
The rigid satisfaction, death for death." 

— " Paradise Lost," Book 3. 

If it be no part of the character of God to hate 



THE TRUE RELIGION. 



307 



all workers of iniquity, to take vengeance on trans- 
gressors, then either he loves the way of evil-doers, 
aid will bless them, or he is indifferent to the con- 
duct of his intelligent and moral creatures. But to 
look with equal eye upon virtue and vice argues 
an utter destitution of moral taste, an entire want 
of intrinsic holiness ; and to bless with his love and 
everlasting glory those who have lived and died in 
sin would imply in him who thus eminently rewards 
iniquity a character positively bad. Such notions 
exhibit the Creator not only shorn of his glories, 
but encompassed with the rayless horrors of eternal 
night. 

Now to deny of God an essential attribute, is to 
undeify him. Nothing can exist divested of any of 
its essential parts. Take from man his head or his 
heart, and he is not. Deny of God the attribute of 
rectoral justice, and you dethrone him, or turn his 
throne into a throne of iniquity. If God is just, 
those who deny this attribute are atheists. What 
they call God, has no counterpart in existence ; is a 
nonentity, — a nothing. It is as different from the 
true God, as a headless trunk from a living man ; 
as the God of Epicurus from the God of the Scrip- 
tures, to whom vengeance belongs. 

Another objection to this system is, that it 
inflicts a deadly wound upon the interests of the 
sinner, by administering an opiate to his conscience. 
If all the evils incurred by transgression were only 
the loss of God's image and the happiness of hea- 



3 o8 



SERMONS. 



ven, with the shame and suffering which belong to 
this, the consciences of sinners would give them 
little or no disturbance. For those pleasures they 
have no relish ; nay, they are a weariness and a 
loathing — they can not away with them. Give them 
a Mahometan paradise, and the Christian heaven 
they can lose without a sigh. It is the fearful look- 
ing for of a judgment to come that makes them 
tremble. If, because sentence against an evil work 
is not executed speedily, the hearts of the children 
of men are fully set in them to do evil, what a full 
swing will they give to their indulgence in sin, when 
assured, by a system calling itself Christian, that no 
punishment will ever be inflicted ! 

Besides, the Unitarian doctrine denies the attri- 
bute of mercy, by denying that there is any penalty 
to be remitted ; of course, the Unitarians are yet to 
be informed that there is any such " quality " in 
God. 

The Trinitarian idea of mercy is that in common, 
as well as scriptural use. " And if he to whom little 
is forgiven, will love little, how much more glorious 
will the Divine mercy appear to him, who believes 
he has been forgiven the debt of eternal death, than 
to the man who denies that any debt of punishment 
has ever been incurred." — (Luke vii., 41-48.) 

The object this scheme aims at, is to bring back 
lost minds to God ; and this it has no adequate 
means to accomplish. The love of God, severed 
from his justice and truth, has never kept one of 



THE TRUE RELIGION. 



Adam's race from sin, nor reclaimed one trans- 
gressor from the evil of his ways. Nay, repentance 
itself is impossible. No one can be sorry for having 
offended God, who believes that God never was 
offended. That sorrow which springs only from 
having played the fool with one's own interests, and 
has no respect to the injured rights of God, is in a 
religious sense no repentance at all. 

Dr. Channing objects to Trinitarianism, that "it 
gives such views of God, that mercy cannot coalesce 
with him ; that under his government man has no 
need of mercy, for he owes no allegiance and there- 
fore can contract no guilt. He is the injured 
party: the wrong lies on the side of the Creator." 
It is evident at first sight, that between these two 
systems, each of which charges the other with 
stripping the character of God of both justice and 
mercy, there can be no compromise, no communion, 
no common religion. Those fearful consequences 
have been charged upon Trinitarianism, because it 
teaches that men come into the world charged with 
the guilt of Adam's sin, and that eternal punish- 
ment is threatened as the wages of sin. The fact of 
guilt derived from the sin of man's representative 
is the only reasonable account of the phenomena of 
original and universal depravity, and the ills that 
flesh is heir to. It is a fact that accords with all 
that we know of the dispensations of Providence, 
and only assumes what is a first principle in reli- 
gion — what God does, must be right. What God 



SERMONS. 



has threatened can be known only from what he has 
declared in his Word, and can therefore never be 
determined by general reason. The appeal is to the 
Word and to the testimony. But if, as Trinitarians 
believe, these doctrines are clearly taught in the 
Word of God, and confirmed by the voice of reason, 
as far as reason testifies, then these consequences 
belong to Dr. Channing himself, and those who 
think with him. They have taken part with the 
enemies of God. They have presumptuously dared 
to call the Holy One of Israel to their bar, and con- 
demn him as unmerciful and unjust. How fearful 
the depravity which could venture upon a position 
like this ! How deadly the enmity against the Only 
True God, which could give expression to blasphe- 
mies fit only for the tenants of hell ! 

He objects to the manner in which Trinitarianism 
supposes pardon to be communicated. It teaches 
" that the sufferings of the sinner are removed by a 
full satisfaction made to Divine justice, in the suffer- 
ings of a substitute." To this he opposes his own 
definition of forgiveness, which excludes all judicial 
infliction on account of sin, and which is contrary to 
the meaning of the term in Scripture and common 
use. On this point let us hear the gifted Locke, for 
whose authority Unitarians pretend so much rever- 
ence. In his paraphrase on Rom. iv., 25, he says 
of Jesus our Lord, " who was delivered to death for 
our offenses, and was raised again for our justifica- 
tion "; and in his note on the same place, " that our 



THE TRUE RELIGION. 



Saviour by his death atoned for our sins, and so we 
were innocent, and thereby freed from the punish- 
ment due to sin." 

The salvation of the sinner is a matter of pure 
mercy to him. The intervention of a substitute 
makes the exercise of mercy consistent with the 
claims of justice. But Dr. Channing does not like 
this circuitous remission. " Nothing," he says, 
" should stand between the soul and God's mercy." 
No. Not even to preserve inviolate the justice and 
truth of God? Why then does the intercession of 
Christ stand between the soul and God's mercy? 

He objects to the doctrine of an infinite atone- 
ment : First, that " it supposes man placed under a 
legislation, and the sovereign possessed of attributes 
at which he shudders." Many a criminal has shud- 
dered before at the severity of the law which con- 
demned him to death. But in a contest between a 
judge and a criminal at his bar, about the evil of 
his sin, it is not difficult to see whose opinion de- 
serves the most weight. The comparison by which 
he endeavors to bring odium upon the doctrine of 
the cross, serves only to show his enmity to the 
truth. As it contains no argument, it requires none 
in reply. " Christ crucified " has been, in every age, 
" to the Jew a stumbling-block, and to the Greek 
foolishness." It does contain, however, a gross and 
willful misrepresentation of the Trinitarian doctrine ; 
I say willful, for in the very next paragraph he states 
and endeavors to set their doctrine aside. He has 



3 I2 



SERMONS. 



said that the primary idea of atonement is " the 
public execution of a God," which according to him- 
self means that " the Eternal Being really suffered 
and died." To represent the Divine Nature as suf- 
fering death is not only unauthorized, but directly 
contrary to the Trinitarian doctrine. Their stand- 
ard writings and confessions of faith give no coun- 
tenance to any such idea. This he ought to have 
known before he ventured to publish such a charge. 
They publish to the world what he would intimate 
is only to be extorted from the private convictions 
of pious Trinitarians. " God took into union with 
himself our nature, that is, a human body and soul, 
and these bore the suffering for our sins ; which per- 
son is very God and very man, yet one Christ." 

" He endured most grievous torments imme- 
diately in his soul, and most painful sufferings in 
his body." * 

The rule confirmed by scriptural and common 
use, by which the orthodox language on this sub- 
ject is justified, is thus laid down : " Christ, in the 
work of mediation, acteth according to both na- 
tures, by each nature doing that which is proper 
to itself ; yet, by reason of the unity of the person, 
that which is proper to one nature is sometimes in 
Scripture attributed to the person denominated by 
the other nature." (Acts xx. 28. John iii. 13. 1 
John iii. 16.) How common an expression it is for 



* Westminster Confession, chap. viii. 



THE TRUE RELIGION. 313 



the loss of lives at sea, — " Every soul on board 
perished ! " Thus having charged Trinitarians with 
what they do not hold, he construes their denial of 
it into a confession of defeat, whilst the real point 
in debate remains untouched, — Whether the divine 
nature being united to the human, in the one per- 
son of Christ, " without conversion, composition, or 
confusion," does not give to the vicarious sufferings 
of the human nature, as an atonement for sin, a 
value that is infinite ? 

His second objection is, that the doctrine is 
" wholly delusion." 

This goes upon the supposition, that the suffer- 
ings of Christ's human nature derive no additional 
value from its union with his Divine person. Locke 
quotes Acts xx. 28, very familiarly to prove a pur- 
chase: "the church of God, which he purchased 
with his own blood." His " gifted mind " saw no 
delusion in the doctrine. It is as truly the affliction 
of a man that his finger is cut, as that his good 
name is slandered ; although the seat of suffering 
in the one case is his body, in the other his mind. 
The suffering endured by a man's body is a greater 
natural evil than the same amount of pain endured 
by the body of a brute ; and the wounds of a 
patriot general in behalf of his country endear him 
more to the hearts of his countrymen than those 
of his private soldiers endear them. If, then, the 
same amount of suffering rises in importance with 
the dignity of the sufferer, who shall limit the im- 



3^4 



SERMONS. 



portance of the sufferings, as an atonement for sin, 
endured in his human nature by Emanuel, God 
with us. 

In a postscript to his sermon Dr. Channing 
laments the necessity he was under of using the word 
atonement in its Trinitarian sense. What then is 
the true sense ? "I have a strong impression that 
the prevalent views of it may easily be shown to be 
false, though the true views of it may not so easily 
be established. On this point there is a diversity 
of opinion." But Unitarians have pretended to 
explain it by the moral influence of Christ's suffer- 
ings, in the way of example, and as a confirmation 
of the truth which he taught. Now it seems that 
the true views of this fundamental doctrine have 
never yet been established, not even by these 
modern luminaries themselves. Their establish- 
ment exists only in the unexplored and difficult 
regions of possibility. If Unitarians have author- 
ized Dr. Channing to be their confessor, they have 
swung from their moorings, and know not where 
they shall anchor again. Afloat upon the ocean of 
scepticism, but one point is determined — that they 
never will yield to the truth. 

§ 9. Unitarianism promotes piety, because it is a 
rational religion." How rational this religion is, 
has been seen in the preceeding part of these 
remarks. A very rational religion truly ! which 
prefers groundless and ever-shifting theory to the 
plainest facts in the providence and word of God ; 



THE TRUE RELIGION. 



which, if its principles were reduced to practice, 
would subvert the foundations of civil society. By 
denouncing all judicial inflictions, it would let the 
worst part of society loose like beasts of prey, to 
raven upon the best : it would dethrone Jehovah 
from the government of his own creatures, forcing 
him to see his laws trampled upon, his mercy 
despised, and his threatenings set at nought with 
impunity. What it wants, however, in reason, it 
makes up in " reasoning pride," a quality common 
to infidels of every class, from the foul-mouthed 
Atheist to the smooth-tongued Unitarian. 

On the other hand, whilst Trinitarians contending 
for the supreme jurisdiction of the holy Scriptures 
on the subject of religion, " believe and show the 
reason of a man," they deny the charge brought 
against them by their opponents, that they quench 
their intellectual light. They give to reason the 
place and office which belong to her, to determine, 
first, the evidences of Divine revelation, and then, 
by fair interpretation, what that revelation contains. 
They only refuse to exalt her to a station which the 
experience of the world demonstrates that she is 
utterly unable to fill. And to reject the light of 
revelation in favor of that reason, is as absurd as 
to refuse the aid of the king of day in discerning 
the face of a country, and the relative situation of 
places upon it, and insist on determining those 
things by the light of a taper at midnight. Since 
then, upon examination, it turns out that the light 



3i6 



SERMONS. 



within them (of which Unitarians boast so loudly) 
is darkness, how great is their darkness ! Having 
heard the verdict of reason, let us bring this cause 
to the tribunal of Scripture, and submit with rever- 
ence to its unerring decisions. 

§ i. The doctrine of the Trinity is taught, Matt, 
xxviii. 19: "Baptizing them in the name of the 
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." 
Baptism is the seal of admission into the household 
of God — the sacred rite by which is performed the 
most solemn act of religious worship, even the con- 
secration of the whole man, to the service and glory 
of God. " In or into the name," expresses to whom 
the consecration is made. That it is made to the 
Father, is not disputed ; but whatever proves this 
in the text proves equally that it is made also to 
the Son and to the Holy Spirit — the Triune God of 
the Bible. A man can do no greater honor to God 
than to devote himself to him. In devoting him- 
self, then, to the Son and Holy Spirit, he regards 
them together with the Father, his God. It is 
absurd to suppose that the baptized are devoted to 
the service and glory of a creature, and " emana- 
tions," in the same manner and with the same solem- 
nity as to the Most High God. It is inconceivable 
why the Saviour should use language which is 
directly calculated, if the Unitarian hypothesis be 
true, to promote idolatry, Moreover, in obeying 
this command, the apostles baptized into the name 
of the Lord Jesus, which can only be justified by 



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317 



saying that, when one Divine person is named, the 
others are understood from the unity of the Divine 
Nature. The argument is equally strong, if the 
formula be rendered as in our version, " in the name, 
by the authority "; for if " in the name of the Father " 
means by the authority of God (and the phrase is 
equally strong in the case of the Son and Holy 
Spirit), their authority is, equally with that of the 
Father, the authority of God. But that a creature, 
and " emanations," should be joined in an act of 
supreme authority with the Most High God, is 
absurd. The truth contained in this passage, 
written over the very threshold of visible Christ- 
ianity, is corroborated by others in the commence- 
ment of revelation. Gen. 1. 26 ; " And God said, 
let us make man in our image, after our like- 
ness." Here God is represented in some sense 
plural, and holding counsel about the creation of 
man. The meaning is clear on the Trinitarian 
doctrine, but utterly inexplicable on any other. 
Some have said that God took counsel with his 
angels. But were they capable of acting the part of 
creators, or of being his counselors to teach him ? 
" I am Jehovah, that maketh all things, that 
stretcheth forth the heavens alone, that spreadeth 
abroad the earth by myself." Besides, when man 
was made, it was in the image of God, and not of 
angels. Again : it has been said that God speaks 
after the manner of earthly kings. But the form of 
speaking was utterly unknown among the kings of 



3i8 



SERMONS. 



ancient times : not an example of it is to be found 
in the Bible. 2 Cor. xiii. 14: "The grace of the 
Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the 
communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all." 

Now, as it is acknowledged on all hands that 
when the apostle says " the love of God be with you 
all," it is a prayer to the Father, that his love might 
be with his people, so when he says, " the grace 
of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all," it is a 
prayer to the Son, for his grace upon the people ; 
and so of the Holy Ghost ; for the form of expression 
in all these cases is precisely the same. This inter- 
pretation is confirmed by parallel passages. Rom. 
i. 7 : " Grace to you, and peace from God our Father 
and the Lord Jesus Christ," I Cor. xvi. 23 : " The 
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you." 

Rev. i. 4, 5 : " Grace be unto you, and peace, 
from him which is, and which was, and which is to 
come ; and from the seven Spirits which are before 
his throne ; and from Jesus Christ." On the Trini- 
tarian system these passages are consistent and intel- 
ligible ; but according to the Unitarian, the apostle 
invokes grace and peace from a creature and emana- 
tions equally with the only true God. Can prayer to 
the Virgin Mary, and all the other saints in the 
Roman calendar, be more idolatrous and absurd ? 
What can the grace of Christ mean more than the 
grace of Abraham or Paul? How does addressing 
prayer to " emanations " differ from the worship of 
the pagan goddess Fear? 



THE TRUE RELIGION. 



319 



To give its full force to the argument from scrip- 
ture in support of the doctrine of the Trinity, it 
would be necessary to adduce the numerous pas- 
sages which prove the true and proper divinity of 
the Son, and the personality and divinity of the 
Holy Spirit. A few texts will be quoted as speci- 
mens. 

1. The divinity of the Son is taught, John i., 1-3 : 
" The Word was with God, and the Word was God. 
The same was in the beginning with God. All 
things were made by him ; and without him was not 
anything made that was made." Ver. 14: "And 
the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, 
(and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only 
begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. 
Rom. ix., 5 : "Of whom as concerning the flesh, 
Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever." 
Heb. i., 8 : " Thy throne, O God, is for ever and 
ever." Ver. 6 : " When he bringeth in the first- 
begotten into the world, he saith, And let all the 
angels of God worship him." Rev. v., 13: "And 
every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, 
and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, 
heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and 
power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, 
and unto the Lamb for ever and ever." 

2. In confirmation of the divinity and personality 
of the Holy Spirit, consider John xiv., 26: "But the 
Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the 
Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all 



320 



SERMONS. 



things." Acts v., 3-4 : " Why hath Satan filled thine 
heart to lie to the Holy Ghost ? Thou hast not 
lied unto men, but unto God." 1 Cor. ii., 10: 
" For the Spirit searcheth all things ; yea, the 
deep things of God." Ps. cxxxix., 7: "Whither 
shall I go from thy spirit ? or whither shall I flee 
from thy presence?" 2 Pet. i., 21: "For the 
prophecy came not in old time by the will of 
man, but holy men of God, spake as they were 
moved by the Holy Ghost." 1 Cor. xii., 11 : "But 
all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, 
dividing to every man severally as he will." Heb. 
ix., 14: "How much more shall the blood of Christ, 
who through the eternal Spirit offered himself with- 
out spot to God, purge your consciences from dead 
works to serve the living God." 

One of the arts by which Unitarians attempt to 
impose upon the ignorant and unwary, is to quote 
passages of Scripture relating to one part of a sub- 
ject, and thence draw inferences against another 
part. They adduce texts to prove that there is 
only one God, which Trinitarians assert as well as 
they; and thence infer an entirely different thing — 
that there are not three persons in that one God. 
Their authorities contain nothing on the point at 
issue. 

To disprove the Divine nature of the Son, they 
produce Scripture to show that he has the nature of 
man. On the subject of the true humanity of the 
Saviour, there is no dispute. We say that the Word 



THE TRUE RELIGION. 



321 



became flesh ; was made of the seed of David ac- 
cording to the flesh. But we say more (Rom. ix., 
5), that " He is over all, God blessed forever/' 
Philip ii., 6, 7: " Who being in the form of God, 
thought it not robbery to be equal with God : but 
made himself of no reputation, and took upon him 
the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness 
of men." These texts afford a very natural expla- 
nation of the different representations which the 
Scriptures give of the Redeemer. When he is said 
to grow in wisdom and in stature — not to know the 
day of judgment — to be inferior to the Father, — 
how obvious is it to refer these descriptions to 
his human nature, and his becoming the Father's 
servant in assuming the office of Mediator! 

But when the names, and attributes, and works, 
and worship, which are proper only to God, are 
ascribed to him, to what shall these be referred but 
to his Divine nature ? If any one, in attempting to 
prove that there is no spirit in man, should produce 
the evidence that he has a body, it would be re- 
garded as a demonstration of the weakness of his 
own mind, or an insult to the understanding of his 
readers. There is as much sound philosophy in 
this, as there is of genuine theology in the argument 
which would refute the doctrine of the Saviour's 
divinity, by proving his human nature, It would be 
very difficult, indeed, for Dr. Channing to compose a 
sermon against Trinitarian doctrines, were he to 
confine himself to Scripture testimonies against them 



322 



SERMONS. 



on the points debated, for not one such testimony 
does the Bible contain. His difficulty will be, not 
to condense within proper limits the multiplicity 
of his proofs, but to collect any materials for such a 
work at all: "Hoc opus hie labor est." He will 
need optics of Hudibrastic keenness, " to see what is 
not to be seen." 

§ 2. The doctrine of innate universal depravity 
is taught in such texts as these : Gen. vi., 5 : " And 
God saw that the wickedness of man was great in 
the earth, and that every imagination of the 
thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." 
Gen. viiL, 21 : " For the imagination of man's heart 
is evil from his youth." Ps. xiv., 2, 3: " The Lord 
looked down from heaven upon the children of 
men, to see if there were any that did understand, 
and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are 
altogether become filthy : there is none that doeth 
good, no, not one." Ps. li., 5 : " Behold, I was shapen 
in iniquity ; and in sin did my mother conceive 
me." Eph. ii., 1,3: " Ye were dead in trespasses 
and sins ; were by nature children of wrath, even as 
others." Believers to whom the apostle wrote, and 
others, divide the world between them ; therefore 
all are by nature children of wrath. Rom. v., 12 : 
" By one man sin entered into the world, and 
death by sin ; and so death passed upon all men, 
for that all have sinned." * Ver. 18: "By the 
offense of one, judgment came upon all men to 
condemnation." " By one man's disobedience, many 



THE TRUE RELIGION. 



3 2 3 



were made sinners." The same doctrine is implied 
in all those texts which teach the necessity of 
regeneration. Thus saith the Amen, the faithful 
and true Witness, John iii., 3 : " Except a man be 
born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." 
Ver . 7 : " Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye 
must be born again." 

§ 3. The doctrine of Atonement, or redemption 
by the blood of Christ, from the curse of the law, 
the penalty of sin. Of this the sacrifices under the 
law were types. Heb. x., i: "The law having a 
shadow of good things to come." Heb. ix., 12 : 
" Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by 
his own blood, he entered in once into the holy 
place, having obtained eternal redemption for us." 
Unitarianism reverses the scriptural order, and 
explains away the sacrificial language applied to 
Christ, by calling it allusion to the sacrifices of the 
law. Gal. iii., 13: " Christ hath redeemed us from 
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us." 
I Pet. ii., 24: "Who his own self bare our sins in 
his own body on the tree : by whose stripes ye 
were healed." Rev. i., 5, 6 : " Unto him that loved 
us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood ; 
to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever." 
If such language does not express the idea that the 
sufferings of Christ removed from believers the 
punishment due to their sins, no words can express 
it, for there are none plainer in any language. 
According to the Unitarian exposition, we ought to 



3 2 4 



SERMONS. 



say we were redeemed by Stephen, and Peter, and 
James, for they also left us a good example, and 
sealed their doctrine in their blood. 

§ 4. The necessity of an Atonement, in order to 
the salvation of sinners. Heb. ix., 22 : " Without 
shedding of blood, there is no remission." Ex. 
xxxiv., 7: God "will by no means clear the guilty." 
Ps. lxxxix., 14 : " Justice and judgment are the habi- 
tation of thy throne." Ps. xi. 6 : " Upon the wicked 
he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an 
horrible tempest : this shall be the portion of their 
cup." Rom. vi., 23 : " The wages of sin is death." 

§ 5. The necessity of an individual interest in the 
righteousness of Christ. Rom. x.,4: "Christ is 
the end of the law for righteousness to every one 
that believeth." John iii., 36: " He that believeth 
on the Son hath everlasting life : and he that 
believeth not the Son, shall not see life ; but the 
wrath of God abideth on him." 

§ 6. The eternity of the punishment of the 
wicked. Matt, xxv., 46 : " These shall go away into 
everlasting punishment." Rev. xiv., ii : " The 
smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and 
ever." Mark ix., 44: "Where their worm dieth 
not, and the fire is not quenched." These texts need 
no comment. If any will not believe them, neither 
will they be persuaded though one rose from the 
dead. 

In opposition to these, and the other correspond- 
ing doctrines of the oracles of God, all that is pecu- 



THE TRUE RELIGION. 



325 



liar to Unitarianism consists. Unless therefore, their 
system is better than the Bible, it can not be better 
calculated to promote " a truly elevated Christian 
character " than that which it opposes. Indeed 
they who hold it have no right to be called Chris- 
tians, any more than they deserve to be called New- 
tonian philosophers who contradict the distinguish- 
ing principles in the system of Newton ; or repub- 
licans, who denounce and oppose all that is charac- 
teristic of a republican government. 

We are now prepared for placing this question : 
Whether Trinitarianism or its opposite is better 
calculated to form a truly elevated religious char- 
acter on its proper ground? Reason, on being 
examined, gives not a whisper of evidence in favor 
of Unitarianism ; and her testimony, although fav- 
orable to Trinitarianism as far as it goes, is, alone 
and unaided, quite insufficient to inform us wherein 
the religion of a sinner consists, or how to attain it. 
Whilst those who prefer her light to that of revela- 
tion are unavoidably left to the darkness which 
they love, it may be satisfactory to those who are 
willing to be taught by Him who cannot lie, briefly 
to state the question according to the Scriptures. 
It may also be important to remark, that while 
Reason, considered as an eternal light, by which the 
nature and relations of things are made known, is 
left out of view, yet Reason, as the eye of the mind, 
which judges of objects upon which a sufficient 
light is thrown by revelation, is never abandoned, 



326 



SERMONS. 



and her office in the whole business of religion is 
quite indispensable. 

1. As the first step in the formation of this religious 
character, a great moral change is necessary in every 
instance. 

2 Cor. v., 17 : " If any man be in Christ, he is a 
new creature." 

John iii., 3 : " Except a man be born again, he 
can not see the kingdom of God." 

Now the orthodox scheme tends to produce this 
commencement of religion, by teaching the doc- 
trines — 1st, Of original and universal depravity ; 
and, 2d, Consequently the necessity of regenera- 
tion ; 3d, The necessity of Divine and supernatural 
influence to produce it, and the agency of the Holy 
Spirit iirits production, hence called the " renewing 
of the Holy Ghost." But the Unitarian tendency 
is all against this work ; for they deny the heredi- 
tary guilt which makes it necessary, and the divinity 
and personality of the Holy Spirit, the Author of 
the change, its increase and perfection. 

2, The man turned from darkness unto light, and 
from the power of Satan unto God, lives a life of 
faith upon the Son of God, as the ground of his 
hope for pardon and eternal life. 

Trinitarianism promotes this, by teaching the 
necessity of an atonement, in order to the salvation 
of sinners ; that one of infinite value has been 
made by the death of Christ, by which those who 
believe on him are redeemed from the curse of the 



THE TRUE RELIGION. 



327 



law, the penalty of sin. Unitarian tendency moves 
in an opposite direction ; for they reject both the 
necessity and the fact of any satisfaction being 
rendered to the justice of God for the sins of those 
who are saved. 

3. The God to whose service and glory he is de- 
voted is the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 

The Trinitarian system promotes this devotion, 
by teaching that the true God is a Trinity. Uni- 
tarianism exerts all its energies to expel the belief of 
that doctrine from the world. 

4. He reverences and adores the holiness and 
justice which make sin exceeding sinful, and de- 
nounces eternal woe upon all impenitent trans- 
gressors, nay, the curse upon every violation of the 
law, whilst he is grateful for the mercy which pro- 
vided an infinite ransom. " God so loved the 
world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that who- 
soever believeth in him might not perish, but have 
everlasting life." 

Trinitarianism tends to promote both the fear 
and the love of God, by teaching that they are due, 
to the utmost of our faculties, to the harmonious 
excellencies of the Divine Character, as they are ex- 
hibited most gloriously in the work of redemption, 
(Ps. lxxxv. 10), where " Mercy and truth are met 
together ; righteousness and peace have kissed each 
other." But Unitarianism teaches its votaries, 
" instead of thanking the Sovereign for providing 
an infinite substitute, to shudder at the attributes 



328 



SERMON'S. 



which render this expedient necessary." The con- 
clusion of the whole matter is, that Unitarianism, 
instead of tending to form an elevated religious 
character, is directly calculated as far as it prevails, 
to banish true religion from the world. 

In fine, let all who love the truth and the souls 
of men be reminded, that the question in this con- 
troversy is not whether a more or less perfect form 
of Christianity shall prevail, but whether the re- 
ligion of the Scriptures is to be preferred before the 
traditions and inventions of men. Let them be 
awake to the existence and ruinous nature of that 
anti-Christian system which, with siren voice, allures 
but to destroy ; which fortifies the natural ungodli- 
ness of men with the mail of an infidel philosophy, 
until its wretched votaries, their consciences quieted 
by a spurious religion, and themselves removed 
from the means and the influences of the true gos- 
pel, unto another which is not the gospel of Christ, 
waste in vanity the time of their merciful visitation, 
and then sink into the jaws of the second death. 

While, then, you regard with true benevolence 
the persons of those who oppose themselves to the 
truth as it is in Jesus — the doctrine that is accord- 
ing to godliness — give no place, no, not for a 
moment, to their heresies of perdition. Trini- 
tarians will, moreover, account it their duty not 
only to instruct those who oppose themselves, but 
also to pray for them, if peradventure God may 
grant them repentance, to the acknowledging of 



THE TRUE RELIGION. 



3 2 9 



the truth, and that they may deliver themselves out 
of the snare of the devil, who are led captive by him 
at his will. Thus only can the charity of Trini- 
tarians embrace their theological antipodes ; for if 
our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in 
whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds 
of them which believe not, lest the light of the 
glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, 
should shine unto them. They who possess the 
temper of Him who prayed for his murderers do 
earnestly desire that the Unitarians, like Paul, may 
embrace, and even " preach the gospel which once 
they destroyed "; like holy Stephen, may commit 
their immortal souls, at the hour of death, into the 
hands of the Redeemer, praying, " Lord Jesus, re- 
ceive my spirit ! " and, welcomed to the joy of their 
Lord, may unite in the anthem of the skies, ascrib- 
ing " blessing, and honor, and glory, and power to 
Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the 
Lamb for ever and ever ! " 



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